Methodist  Adventure: 
In  Negro  Educatioi 


JAY  S.  STOWELL, 


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Collection  of  i^ortfj  Caroliniana 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


0003921 


9700 


This  book  must  not 
be  token  from  the 
Library  building. 


Form  No.  471 


OTHER    BOOKS    BY 
JAY  S.  STOWELL 


HOME  MISSION  TRAILS 

HOW  TO  TEACH  TRAINING 

WORLD  CHRISTIANS 

MAKING  MISSIONS  REAL 


Methodist  Adventures 
in  Negro  Education 


BY 

JAY  S.  STOWELL 


THE  METHODIST  BOOK  CONCERN 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1922,  by 
JAY  S.  STOWELL 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


CONTENTS   - 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introduction 9 

I.     Negro  Progress  Along  Learning's  Highway 13 

II.     Training  Negro  Ministers 34 

III.  Teaching  the  Negro  to  Care  for  His  Body 50 

IV.  Building  a  University 67 

V.     An  Eastern  College 82 

VI.     In  Our  Largest  State 93 

VII.     An  Important  School  in  a  Great  City 110 

VIII.     The  Heart  of  the  "Black  Belt" 122 

IX.     Looking  Toward  the  West 138 

X.     The  Carolinas 149 

XI.     In  "Sunny  Tennessee" 162 

XII.     What  of  the  Future? 173 

Schools    Under    the    Auspices    of    the    Board    of 

Education  for  Negroes 182 

Secretaries  of  the    Freedmen's  Aid   Society   and 

OF  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes 183 

Roster  of  Presidents  and  Principals 184 

Historical  Memoranda 189 


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ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Officers  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes  .  .  Frontispiece 
Secretaries  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  1866-1912.  .     20 

The  Students  of  One  School 26 

Location   of   Schools   of   the    Board   of   Education   for 

Negroes 31 

President  P.  M.  Watters 34 

Elijah  H.  Gammon 36 

Gammon  Theological  Seminary 41 

Learning  to  Map  the  Parish,  Gammon  Theological  Sem- 
inary      45 

President    Emeritus    George    W.    Hubbard,    M.D.,    and 

President  John  J.  Mullowney,  M.D 50 

The  Meharry  Colleges  and  Solving  Dental  Problems.  .     55 
A  Walden  Building   Now  Turned   Over  to  the   Use  of 

THE  Meharry  Colleges 59 

Superintendent  T.  Restin  Heath,  M.D.,  and  Mrs.  Heath     62 

Flint-Goodridge 65 

President  Harry  A.  King 67 

Leete  Hall 72 

Professor  Wm.  H.  Crogman 73 

Crogman  Chapel 76 

Principal  Isaac  H.  Miller 78 

CooKMAN  Institute 80 

President  John  O.  Spencer 82 

Morgan  College 85 

Principal  Thomas  Kiah 90 

Princess  Anne  Academy 91 

President  M.  W.  Dogan 93 

Wiley  College 97 

President  J.  B.  Randolph 101 

Samuel  Huston  College  Baseball  Team 103 

Burrowes  Hall,  Samuel  Huston  College 107 

Eliza  Dee  Home,  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society.  .  .  .    108 

President  C.  M.  Melden 110 

New  Orleans  College 115 

7  ■ 


8  NEGKO  EDLX^ATION 

PAGE 

New  Orleans  College  Football  Team,  State  Champions, 

1920 118 

President  M.  S.  Davage 122 

Rust  College 124 

President  J.  B.  F.  Shaw 129 

Central  Building,  Haven  Institute 130 

The  Conservatory  of  Music  and  Other  Views  of  Haven 

Institute 131 

President  R.  N.  Brooks 134 

Braint;rd  Hall,  Central  Alabama  Institute 135 

Students,  Central  Alabama  Institute 135 

President  Robert  B.  HA'i'ES 138 

George  R.  Smith  College 139 

President  James  M.  Cox 145 

Philander  Smith  College 147 

President  L.  M.  Dunton 149 

Claflin  College 152 

Mrs.  L.  M.  Dunton 153 

President  Frank  Trigg 156 

Bennett  College  Campus 158 

Kent  Home 160 

President  Judson  S.  Hull 162 

Original   Building   at   Morristown    Normal   and   Indus- 
trial College 163 

Main    Building,    Morristown    Normal    and    Industrial 

College 166 

Wallace  Farm 167 

Some  Walden  Buildings 170 

The  Older  Generation  and  the  Younger  Generation  .  .  175 


INTRODUCTION 

For  the  first  time  in  the  long  years  in  which  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  labored  for  the 
education  of  the  American  Negro,  a  coordinated 
presentation  of  the  remarkable  story  is  now  pre- 
sented. It  is  a  romance  in  education,  and  brings  to 
the  thousands  of  Methodists  who  have  invested  in 
the  work  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  now  the 
Board  of  Education  for  Negroes,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  an  adequate  statement  of  the 
large  returns  their  money  has  made  possible. 

The  author,  the  Rev.  Jay  S.  Stowell,  a  member 
of  the  Publicity  Staff  of  the  Committee  on  Con- 
servation and  Advance  of  the  Council  of  Boards  of 
Benevolence  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
has  had  an  unusual  opportunity  to  secure  his  facts 
and  impressions.  In  addition  to  the  records  and 
the  history  of  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  whose 
work  for  Negro  girls  is  closely  related  to  that  of 
the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes,  he  had  the 
privilege  of  a  personal  visit  to  each  of  the  schools. 
This  gives  to  the  book  that  value  which  only  first- 
hand knowledge  makes  possible. 

The  achievement  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  this  field  of  service  emphasizes  the  mag- 
nitude of  the  task  to  be  done.     It  lays  bare  the  ur- 

9 


10  INTRODUCTION 

gent  needs  for  bnildings,  equipment,  and  larger 
faculties  for  the  schools.  Men  and  women  trained 
in  these  schools  are  now  professors  and  college 
presidents  in  the  schools  in  which  they  received 
their  training.    But  more  leaders  are  sorely  needed. 

We  read  here  of  the  sacrificial  devotion  of  pio- 
neers with  warming  hearts.  We  think  of  the  Negro 
leaders,  whom  we  know,  with  new  interest  and 
pride.  The  faithful  secretaries  of  the  Board  of 
Education  for  Negroes  who  heralded  the  needs,  the 
bishops  who  interested  men  and  women  of  wealth 
to  erect  buildings  and  provide  endowment,  and  the 
church  editors  who  have  scattered  the  story  broad- 
cast week  by  week — all  stand  forth  in  a.  new  way  in 
the  light  of  the  results  recorded  here. 

The  wisdom  of  those  who  start  new  ventures  in 
Churcli  or  State  is  always  questioned.  Would  that 
all  those  who  participated  in  the  organization  of 
the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  might  know  how  their  wisdom  has 
been  justified. 

The  facts  recorded  by  Mr.  Stowell  are  given  a 
fine  philosophical  treatment.  He  does  the  unusual 
— but  praiseworthy — thing  of  paying  tribute  to 
those  who  achieved  while  they  are  yet  alive,  and  he 
inspires  the  reader  to  a  new  conception  of  the  place 
of  the  American  Negro  in  American  life. 

"Methodist  Adventures  in  Negro  Education"  is 
of  value  to  the  Negro  race,  to  the  nation  and  to  the 
church.  It  is  a  permanent  contribution  to  the  lit- 
erature of  the  evolution  of  a  race  from  slavery  to 


INTRODUCTION  11 

efficient  citizenship.  It  records  the  part  played 
both  by  the  early  toilers  and  by  the  Centenary  of 
Methodist  Missions  which  is  making  possible  the 
achievements  of  to-day.  It  demonstrates  in  terms 
of  work  accomplished,  the  function  and  value  of  a 
great  Benevolent  Board. 

May  the  ministry  of  its  message  bear  large  and 
lasting  fruit. 

Ralph  Welles  Keeler. 
Chicago,  January  1,  1022. 


OFFICERS  OP  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION  FOR  NEGROES 
OP  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

P.  J.   Maveety,   Corresponding  I.  Garland  Penn,  Corresponding 

Secretary  Secretary 

William  P.  Anderson,  President 
John  H.  Race,  Treasurer  John  L.  Seaton,  Educational 

Director 


CHAPTER  I 

NEGRO  PROGRESS  ALONG  LEARNING'S 
HIGHWAY 

Three  hundred  years  of  Pilgrim  history  have 
unfolded  themselves  in  America,  and  recently  na- 
tions have  joined  hands  across  the  ocean  in  the 
celebration  of  the  Tercentenary  of  the  sailing  of 
the  Mayflower.  It  was  fitting  that  this  should  be. 
That  small  boat,  with  all  that  it  represents,  has 
come  to  fill  too  large  a  place  in  our  national  life  to 
be  forgotten  or  ignored.  The  little  '^band  of  ex- 
iles'' which  it  carried  built  themselves  and  their 
ideals  into  the  very  foundations  of  our  social  order. 
They  came,  and  the  story  of  the  America  that  is 
can  never  be  told  without  them.  There  were  other 
groups,  which  came  in  those  early  days,  however; 
and  they  too  left  their  imprint  upon  our  national 
character. 

Early  as  the  Pilgrims  were,  the  Negro  had 
already  preceded  them.  Six  months  before  the 
Mayflower  touched  the  coast  of  New  England,  a 
small  craft,  whose  name  has  rotted  with  her  tim- 
bers, landed  its  handful  of  Negroes  on  the  shores 
of  Virginia.  They  too  were  a  ''band  of  exiles,''  but 
they  came  neither  willingly  nor  gladl}',  but  of  com- 
pulsion.    Of  them  no  poet  wrote : 

13 


14  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

"Amidst  the  .storm  they  sang, 

And  the  stars  heard,  and  the  sea ; 
And  the  sounding  isles  of  the  dim  woods  rang 
To  the  anthem  of  the  free." 

And  yet  there  has  seemed  to  be  little  danger  that 
the  American  Negro  would  sink  into  oblivion.  In 
fact,  if  the  proverbial  traveler  from  Mars  should 
ever  pause  to  read  the  files  of  our  most  character- 
istic American  publication,  The  Congressional 
Eecord,  he  might  learn  little  about  the  Pilgrims, 
but  at  every  turn  he  would  be  confronted  with  w^ell- 
nigh  endless  dissertations  upon  the  American  Ne- 
gro. Humble  in  origin,  the  Negro  has  been  forced 
against  his  will  to  play  an  important  part,  and  in- 
deed sometimes  the  leading  role,  in  our  national 
drama. 

To-day,  even  from  the  standpoint  of  numbers, 
the  American  Negro  is  a  factor  to  be  reckoned  with. 
The  handful  of  three  centuries  ago  had  grown  to 
four  million  by  the  time  of  emancipation  in  18G3, 
and  now  the  total  is  ten  and  one-half  millions; 
sufficient,  from  the  standpoint  of  numbers,  to  re- 
place every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  eighteen 
States  of  the  Union,  east  and  west,  and  in  addition 
to  form  a  nineteenth  colony  with  a  poi)ulation 
nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  present  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. 

And  the  Negro  of  the  present  is  no  longer  a 
bondsman ;  he  is  not  a  chattel ;  he  is  a  citizen  of  a 
free  country,  whose  integrity  and  permanence  de- 
pend upon   the  character  and  intelligence  of  its 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  15 

citizenry.  Surely  the  progress  which  the  Negro 
has  made  along  the  highway  of  learning  is  a  matter 
of  common  and  vital  concern  to  all  of  us. 

Education  in  the  Early  Days 

It  is  common  to  speak  of  the  rapid  advance 
which  the  Negro  has  made  in  the  field  of  education 
since  the  Civil  War.  To  complete  the  picture  it 
must  be  recalled  that  the  education  of  the  Negro 
really  began  much  earlier  than  that.  The  facts  that 
the  Negro  had  come  to  use  the  English  language, 
that  he  had  learned  something  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
the  white  man's  religion,  and  that  he  had  adopted 
many  habits  and  ideas  of  his  white  master  are  but 
indications  of  a  process  of  education  which  had 
been  going  on  almost  unconsciously.  In  the  early 
days,  before  the  development  of  our  industrial  life 
made  the  keeping  of  large  numbers  of  slaves  eco- 
nomically profitable,  there  was  relatively  little  op- 
position to  the  education  of  the  Negro.  Masters 
educated  their  slaves  that  they  might  serve  more 
effectively;  sympathetic  persons  sought  to  improve 
the  condition  of  the  helpless  by  enlightening  their 
minds ;  and  missionaries  labored  with  them  in  order 
that  they  might  learn  to  read  the  Bible.  Negroes 
learned  to  appreciate  and  write  poetry ;  they  mas- 
tered bookkeeping  and  correspondence;  they 
studied  science;  they  became  proficient  in  mathe- 
matics, and  they  delved  in  philosophy.  Negroes 
were  even  employed  to  teach  white  students. 

With  the  development  of  industry,  however,  the 


16  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

idea  of  keeping  many  slaves  became  a  popiilai'  one, 
and  the  practice  became  economically  profitable. 
The  desire  to  protect  the  system  of  slavery  itself 
grew,  and,  little  by  little,  education,  which  seemed 
to  be  striking  at  the  very  roots  of  slavery,  was  made 
taboo.  Measures  began  to  be  framed  to  make  the 
education  of  the  Negro  impossible.  South  Carolina 
took  the  lead  in  this  matter  in  1740,  Georgia  soon 
followed,  and  for  a  century  the  restrictions  con- 
tinued to  be  multiplied.  Colored  people,  beyond 
a  certain  nund)er,  were  not  allowed  to  assemble  for 
social  or  religious  purjioses,  except  in  the  presence 
of  "discreet"  white  men.  Masters  who  had  em- 
ployed their  favorite  blacks  as  bookkeepers,  or 
printers,  or  in  similar  occupations  were  forced  to 
discontinue  the  practice.  Private  and  public 
school  teachers  were  forbidden  by  law  to  assist 
Negroes  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  in  any 
branch  whatsoever.  It  was  made  a  crime  for  a 
Negro  to  teach  his  own  children,  and  numerous 
other  limitations  were  added. 

The  Forbidden  Fruit 

Quite  naturally  this  placing  of  learning  in  the 
class  of  the  "forbidden  fruit"  only  served  to  make  it 
doubly  attractive  to  many  Negroes.  Children  were 
taught  in  secret  by  their  parents ;  adults  stole  away 
in  the  darkness  of  the  night  to  some  hidden  spot  to 
receive  instruction;  and  in  some  cases  children  of 
slave  owners  taught  the  younger  blacks  to  read, 
and  they  were  not  punished  for  their  acts.     Just 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  17 

how  widely  education  had  become  extended  among 
the  slaves  is  not  definitely  known,  as  the  shrewdest 
Negroes  would  feign  ignorance  when  examined. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  ten  per  cent  of  the  adnlt 
Negroes  had  at  least  the  i-ndiments  of  an  education 
by  1860. 

Emancipation 

The  emancipation  of  the  American  Negro  in  1863 
is  probably  unique  in  history  both  in  method  and 
results.  The  freeing  of  four  million  individuals 
who  had  been  in  bondage,  and  the  setting  of  them 
loose  without  homes,  with  almost  no  clothes,  with 
no  food,  and,  in  fact,  without  most  of  the  neces- 
sities of  existence  was  unprecedented.  The  story 
of  the  adjustment  of  the  Negro  to  the  new  situation 
is  little  less  than  a  wonder  story.  The  profound  ig- 
norance of  the  great  mass  of  Negroes  was  only  one 
factor  in  a  very  complicated  situation.  Curiously 
enough,  however,  the  dominating  passion  of  multi- 
tudes of  these  ignorant,  degraded  human  beings 
was  to  get  education.  The  ^'forbidden  fruit"  had 
become  the  one  thing  supremely  to  be  desired. 
There  was  little  or  no  attempt  to  take  over  the 
property  of  former  masters ;  slight  was  the  concern 
for  material  possessions  so  long  as  there  was  a  rag 
to  cover  the  body,  a  crust  of  bread  to  eat,  or  a  shel- 
ter of  any  sort  available;  the  supreme  passion  was 
the  passion  to  learn.  The  school  was  the  one  thing 
needful,  and  the  ability  to  read  and  write  was  the 
golden  key  to  unlock  the  riches  of  the  world.    The 


18  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

story  of  those  days  is  a  touching-  one.  All  over  the 
Southland  groups  might  be  seen  sitting  far  into 
the  night  poring  over  the  primer  or  the  spelling- 
book.  Tottering  old  men  and  women  sat  side  by 
side  with  their  children  and  their  children's  chil- 
dren endeavoring  to  master  the  intricacies  of  the 
A  B  Cs. 

Agencies  to  Help 

Even  while  the  war  was  in  progress  philanthropic 
agencies  had  been  at  work  teaching  the  Negro. 
One  soldier  at  least  insisted  that  every  Negro  who 
came  into  the  camp  brought  a  spelling-book  with 
him.  As  soon  as  the  war  was  over,  home  mission 
boards  and  general  agencies  projected  work  in  the 
South.  Some  denominations  combined  in  their  edu- 
cational work  through  the  Western  and  North- 
western Freedmen's  Aid  Commission.  The  work 
was  felt  to  be  limited,  however,  by  that  arrange- 
ment. The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  cooperated 
through  these  general  agencies  until  several  of  the 
larger  denominations  had  withdrawn  and  set  up 
their  own  work  and  until  it  became  apparent  that 
effective  work  could  no  longer  be  carried  on  and 
supported  according  to  the  plan  in  operation. 

The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church 

At  this  juncture  a  meeting  of  ministers  and  lay- 
men was  called  at  the  Trinity  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  ''to  confer  in  regard  to 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  19 

the  work  of  relief  and  education  required  in  behalf 
of  the  freedmen."  The  meeting  was  called  to  order 
at  two  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  August  7,  18C6, 
and  lasted  for  two  days.  The  following-  persons 
were  present:  Bishop  D.  W.  Clark,  Rev.  Adam 
Poe,  Rev.  J.  M.  Reid,  Rev.  R.  S.  Rust,  Rev.  John  M. 
Walden,  Rev.  J.  R.  Stillwell,  and  Mr.  J.  F.  Larkin 
of  Cincinnati;  Rev.  Luke  Hitchcock  and  the  Hon. 
Grant  Goodrich  of  Chicago;  Rev.  B.  F.  Crary  of 
St.  Louis ;  and  Rev.  Robert  Allyn  of  Lebanon.  This 
meeting  resulted  in  the  organization  of  The  Freed- 
men's  Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  Bishop  D.  W.  Clark  being  made  president 
of  the  society  and  the  Rev.  John  M.  Walden  its  cor- 
responding secretary. 

The  nature  of  the  discussion  at  this  meeting  is 
well  illustrated  by  the  following  statement  which 
was  made  relative  to  what  the  new  society  might 
accomplish : 

At  a  moderate  estimate  it  would  secure  fifty  thousand 
dollars  to  be  apj)lied  to  these  schools  iu  connectiou  with 
our  mission  work.  This  would  sui)i)ort  oue  hundred 
teachers  nine  months  in  the  year;  each  teacher  would 
have  an  average  attendance  of  fifty  scholars,  making  a 
total  of  five  thousand.  And,  if  these  began  in  the  alpha- 
bet, they  would  learn  to  read  during  the  single  session. 

It  was  further  emphasized  at  this  meeting  that  the 
new  society  was  ''to  cooperate  with  the  Missionary 
and  Church  Extension  Society  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church." 

Within  three  months  after  its  oroanization  the 


20 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  21 

new  society  was  actually  at  work  in  the  South.  By 
the  end  of  the  lirst  year  the  report  showed  52  teach- 
ers employed,  5,000  pupils  enrolled,  and  59  schools 
conducted  as  follows :  17  in  Tennessee,  11  in 
Georgia,  4  in  Alabama,  3  in  Kentucky,  9  in 
Louisiana,  1  in  Mississippi,  1  in  Arkansas,  8  in 
South  Carolina,  2  in  Xorth  Carolina,  and  3  in  Vir- 
ginia. 

The  Bishops  Speak 
On  November  8,  18GG,  the  Board  of  Bishops  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  assembled  at  New 
York  city,  declared : 

The  emaucipation  of  four  millions  of  slaves  has 
opened  at  our  very  doors  a  wide  field  calling  alike  for 
mission  and  educational  work.  It  has  devolved  upon 
the  church  a  fearful  responsibility.  Religion  and  edu- 
cation alone  can  make  freedom  a  blessing  to  them. 

The  time  may  come  when  the  vStates  in  the  South 
will  make  some  provision  for  the  education  of  the  col- 
ored children  now  growing  ux)  in  utter  ignorance  in 
their  midst.  But  thus  far  they  have  made  none,  nor 
perhaps  can  it  soon  be  exjiected  of  them.  Christian 
philanthropy  must  supply  this  lack.  .  .  .  We  cannot 
turn  away  from  the  appeal  that  comes  home  to  our 
consciences  and  hearts.  Nor  can  we  delay.  The  emer^ 
gency  is  upon  us,  and  we  must  begin  to  work  now. 

Unmet  Needs 
In  spite  of  the  good  work  so  speedily  undertaken 
by  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  it  was  possible  to 
respond  to  only  a  fraction  of  the  appeals  which 
were  made  to  it.  With  reference  to  the  over- 
whelming number  of  appeals  which  had  to  be 
turned  down  an  early  report  of  the  corresponding 


22  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

secretary  says:  "To  refuse  these  applications  has 
been  the  most  painful  duty  connected  with  the  af- 
fairs of  the  society/' 

The  First  Schools 

The  first  schools  organized  by  the  society  were 

indeed  primitive  affairs.     Any  available  spot  was 

used,    although    many    of  them    were    started    in 

churches  to  provide  an  opportunity  for  Negroes  to 

learn  to  read  the  Bible.     A  visitor  to  one  of  those 

earh^  schools  gives  his  impression  as  follows : 

Ou  rough  benches  sat  rougher  peoj^le — youth,  ehil- 
dreu,  men,  and  Avomeu — in  rags  of  linsey-woolsey  and 
jeans,  patched  like  Josei^h's  coat,  not  through  pride 
and  plent3%  but  tlirougli  poverty,  bootless  and  shoeless 
and  stockingless,  knowledgeless  certainly,  most  would 
have  said  brainless.  .  .  .  There  they  sat,  crouching 
over  their  primers,  spelling  with  difficulty  the  easiest 
words,  answering  stammeringly  the  simplest  ques- 
tions, strong  only  in  the  gift  of  song  and  in  the  faith 
of  their  teachers." 

Yet  there  was  progress,  and  rapid  progress.  By 
the  year  18G9  we  read  : 

Already  in  our  schools  we  may  listen  to  solutions  of 
problems  in  algebra,  demonstrations  in  geometry,  and 
translations  of  classic  authors  that  would  reflect  great 
credit  ui)on  students  of  the  far-famed  institutions  of 
our  countr}-,  in  whose  veins  flows  the  pure  blood  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon. 

A  little  later  we  read : 

Young  men  who  well  remember  when  they  were 
slaves  carried  four  studies,  through  a  three  mouths 
term,  and,  upon  the  averaging  of  a  carefully  marked 
record,  were  found  to  have  a  rank  above  90  per  cent, 
some  above  95  per  cent. 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  23 

One  boy  of  sixteen  was  reported  to  have  thor- 
oiiglily  mastered  mathematics  through  trigonom- 
etry, to  have  read  Latin  through  Horace,  to  be 
equally  proficient  in  Greek,  and  to  be  able  to  trans- 
late, analyze,  and  parse  with  surprising  facility. 

After  twelve  years  of  effort  the  secretary  of  the 
society  reports : 

Our  teachers  are  unanimous  in  the  judgment  that 
colored  pupils  learn  as  rapidly  as  white,  and  that  they 
are  far  more  enthusiastic  in  their  studies. 

Difficulties  and  Struggles 

Such  progress  as  was  made,  however,  was 
achieved  in  the  face  of  very  serious  difiicnlties. 

In  the  face  of  difficulties,  however,  both  teachers 
and  pupils  persisted  in  their  work.  One  student 
walked  two  hundred  nules  across  the  country  in 
order  to  be  on  hand  for  the  opening  day  of  school ; 
another  walked  fifteen  miles  carrying  the  box  with 
his  books,  clothing,  and  other  necessities  on  his 
shoulder;  one  sat  down  every  morning  to  a.  break- 
fast made  up  of  a  piece  of  rough  bread  and  a  cup  of 
cold  water  for  the  sake  of  an  education;  one  took 
a  pig,  his  sole  property,  under  his  arm  and  started 
for  "college'" ;  two  girls  aged  fourteen  and  sixteen 
walked  nine  miles  a  day,  to  and  from  school, 
through  heat  and  rain  and  sometimes  with  blister- 
ing feet,  in  order  to  attend  school ;  and  the  list 
might  be  continued  almost  indefinitely,  for  these 
were  the  typical  and  not  the  exceptional  cases. 

And,  as  the  years  advanced,  Negroes  gave  out 


24  NEGRO  EDUCATIOX 

of  their  poverty.  AVa  slier  women  shared  their  earn- 
ings, Sunday-school  children  gave  their  pennies. 
and  others  gave  their  hard-earned  dollars  that  the 
work  of  the  schools  might  go  on  and  that  their 
children  might  have  their  ''chance."  One  school 
reported  |1,900  subscribed  by  colored  x^eople  in 
the  direst  poverty,  and  all  of  it  paid  in  full  to  the 
very  last  nickel.  Many  other  subscriptions  varying 
in  amount  were  made  and  paid.  There  seemed  to 
be  no  sacrifice  too  great  for  these  humble  people 
who,  out  of  the  depths,  were  for  the  first  time 
started  on  the  path  of  enlightenment. 

A  Changing  Emphasis 

Thus  out  of  the  dire  necessity  of  the  moment  the 
educational  work,  with  its  emphasis  upon  the  teach- 
ing of  reading  and  writing  to  emancipated  slaves, 
was  born.  There  were  many  schools  and  many 
thousands  of  pupils  of  all  sorts  and  ages.  As  the 
work  progressed  new  needs  aro.se  and  new  factors 
appeared  to  be  reckoned  with.  As  a  matter  of 
policy  it  soon  seemed  to  be  wiser  to  undertake  to 
train  teachers  who  would  go  out  to  teach  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  colored  boys  and  girls  to  read  and 
write,  rather  than  to  undertake  to  teach  the  multi- 
tudes directly.  It  also  appeared  that  the  Xegro 
needed  to  be  taught  many  things  besides  those  to 
be  found  between  the  covers  of  a  book,  and  indus- 
trial training  very  soon  came  to  fill  an  important 
place  in  the  educational  program.  As  the  work  of 
the  schools  became  elaborated  the  cost  of  operat- 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  25 

ing  a  particular  institution  increased,  and  tlie 
desirability  of  centralization  of  effort  was  empha- 
sized. Secondary  schools,  industrial  schools,  col- 
leges, and  professional  schools  very  soon  became 
the  order  of  the  day  with  their  emphasis  upon 
higher  education  as  contrasted  to  elementary  edu- 
cation. 

Industrial  Training 

Three  centuries  of  enforced  servitude  had  taught 
the  older  generation  of  Negroes  many  things  about 
labor,  but  it  had  produced  only  a  relatively  small 
number  of  highly  skilled  artisans.  Then,  too,  there 
was  always  the  rising  generation  in  need  of  train- 
ing. It  was  felt  by  many  that  the  Xegro  needed 
both  the  discipline  and  the  economic  independence 
which  could  be  secured  only  through  the  develop- 
ment of  mechanical  skill  in  some  specific  field. 
Others  insisted  that  the  Negro  was  incapable  of  do- 
ing anything  effectively  except  work  with  the 
hands,  and  they,  therefore,  added  their  voice  to 
that  of  others  in  advocating  industrial  training  for 
the  Negro. 

Most  of  the  schools  responded  to  the  situation 
by  including  industrial  courses  or  adding  them  to 
the  already  established  course.  Industrial  build- 
ings were  erected,  foundries,  blacksmith  shops, 
machine  shops,  printing  plants,  carpenter  shops, 
plumbing  shops,  tailor  shops  and  others  were 
added.  One  school  advertised  in  its  catalogue 
courses  in  twenty  distinct  industries,  and  others 


26 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


o 
o 

o 

H 
O 

o 

m 

H 

H 
O 

H 
en 

H 
K 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  27 

were  not  far  behind.  Wagons  were  mannf actnred ; 
fine  carriages  and  hearses  were  turned  out;  briclis 
were  made;  buildings  were  constructed;  printing- 
presses  turned  out  elaborate  products;  foundries 
were  kept  bus}^;  and  so  on  through  a  long  and  im- 
posing list. 

Here  again,  however,  changing  conditions 
brought  about  a  changed  emphasis.  In  some  cases 
altered  conditions  in  industr}-  rendered  previously 
profitable  trades  relatively  valueless  from  an  eco- 
nomic standpoint.  The  expense  of  industrial 
education  was,  perhaps  contrary  to  common  sup- 
position, very  large,  and  the  withdrawal  of  certain 
funds  which  had  previously  been  made  available 
for  the  work  embarrassed  the  program  at  certain 
points.  The  difficulty  of  running  a  trade  school 
and  at  the  same  time  maintaining  satisfactory 
scholastic  standards  was  keenly  felt.  In  the  mean- 
time several  independent  industrial  schools,  of 
which  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  are  outstanding  ex- 
amples, were  developed  on  an  elaborate  scale.  It 
was  found  also  that  it  was  easier  to  secure  public 
funds  for  the  promotion  of  industrial  education 
for  the  Negro  than  for  the  development  of  other 
types  of  secondary  and  higher  education  for  him, 
and,  in  a  number  of  States,  agricultural  and  me- 
chanical colleges  were  established  for  Negroes  and 
have  since  been  maintained  at  State  expense. 

At  present  industrial  training  is  given  in  more 
than  half  of  the  schools  for  Negroes  operated  by 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.     There  is,  how- 


28  :n^egro  education 

ever,  less  emphasis  upon  the  teaching  of  trades  and 
more  emphasis  upon  the  general  educational  value 
of  limited  industrial  training  in  connection  with 
or  as  an  integral  part  of  the  regular  school  course. 
Opportunity  is  still  given  for  those  Avho  wish  to 
specialize  in  a  particular  field;  and  carpenters, 
blacksmiths,  printers,  dressmakers,  tailors,  and 
other  artisans  are  given  diplomas  from  time  to  time. 
A  number  of  the  schools  also  own  fine  farms  which 
are  used  in  a  limited  way  both  as  demonstration 
and  laboratory  centers  for  agricultural  training. 

Industrial  Homes 

At  an  early  date  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  l^egan 
cooperation  with  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Societ}'  by 
the  establishment  of  Industrial  Homes  for  Xegro 
girls  in  connection  with  certain  schools.  At  present 
eight  of  these  Homes  are  in  operation.  They  repre- 
sent only  a  portion  of  the  work  being  done  for  Ne- 
groes by  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which  at  other 
places  maintains  its  own  independent  schools  for 
Negro  girls  in  the  South.  The  general  plan  for  the 
Homes  is  to  have  them  serve  as  dormitories  for  a 
limited  number  of  girls  and  also  as  centers  f(n'  the 
teaching  of  domestic  science  and  domestic  art  to  all 
the  girls  of  the  schools  with  which  they  cooperate. 
The  number  of  residents  in  the  various  Homes 
varies  from  about  thirty  to  approximatel}"  one  hun- 
dred.    These  residents  inevitably  get  some  special 


NEGRO  PROGKESS  29 

training  in  kitchen  and  dining  room  procedure,  in 
the  care  of  rooms,  and  in  the  general  art  of  home- 
making  which  the  other  girls  outside  of  the  Home 
do  not  get,  but  the  regular  classroom  work  in  cook- 
ing, plain  sewing,  dressmaking,  and  similar 
branches  is  open  to  all  the  girls  in  the  school. 
The  Homes  are  immaculately  kept,  and  the  con- 
tribution which  they  have  made  to  the  work  has 
been  very  large. 

A  New  Name 

The  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  which  met  in  1888  enlarged  the  scope 
of  the  work  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  to  in- 
clude educational  work  among  white  people  of  the 
South,  and  changed  its  name  to  "The  Freedmen's 
Aid  and  Southern  Education  Society  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church."  Twenty  years  later 
(1908)  the  supervision  of  the  white  work  was  as- 
signed by  the  General  Conference  to  the  Board  of 
Education  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and 
the  Society  which  had  had  the  work  in  charge  again 
became  "The  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church."  In  1920  the  name  was 
changed  to  "The  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes, 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 

A  Summary  of  the  Work 

In  a  little  more  than  half  a  century  the  society 
now  known  as  The  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes, 


\ 


30  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

;of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  received 
\and  instructed  more  than  two  hundred  thousand 
ipupils.  Of  these  more  than  fifteen  thousand  have 
'been  graduated.  These  graduates  have  gone  out  to 
■become  ministers,  doctors,  lawyers,  dentists,  phar- 
macists, business  men,  farmers,  and  teachers,  and 
to  enter  many  other  fields  of  activity.  Perhaps  no 
single  group  is  more  important  than  that  of  the 
teachers.  Former  pupils  and  graduates  have  gone 
out  to  teach  Negro  boys  and  girls  literally  by  the 
millions.  Possibly  in  no  other  way  have  the  schools 
been  able  to  multiply  their  influence  so  enormously 
and  so  effectively  as  through  the  large  and  con- 
tinuous stream  of  teachers  which  has  gone  out  from 
their  doors.  And  fortunately  most  of  the  graduates 
have  gone  out  as  avowed,  earnest  Christians  to  live 
consistent  Christian  lives  in  the  communities  in 
which  they  have  labored.  Surely  this  has  been  no 
mean  contribution  to  the  advancement  of  the  King- 
dom of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth.  The  more  than  two 
thousand  Negro  ministers  and  the  third  of  a  mil- 
lion Negro  church  members  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  have  been  made  possible  largely 
through  the  schools  of  the  church. 

The  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  now  maintains  nineteen 
schools  for  Negroes  in  the  South.  Three  of  these 
are  professional  schools ;  one  school  has  been  desig- 
nated as  a  university  center,  although,  as  yet,  not 
fully  developed  as  such;  the  rest  are  of  secondary 
and  collegiate   rank.      The   names   of   the   schools 


XEGRO  PEOGRESS 


31 


■a 


32  NEGKO  EDUCATIO]^ 

have  not  always  been  fully  descriptive,  as  circum- 
stances have  comiDelled  some  schools  which  were 
organized  as  colleges  to  j)ut  most  of  their  empha- 
sis upon  secondary  school  work.  These  schools  are, 
almost  without  exception,  w^ell  located  and  well  dis- 
tributed and  in  a  position  to  render  an  increasingly 
effective  service.  Some  elementary  instruction  is 
given  in  thovse  States  where  the  public-school  stan- 
dards are  still  very  low,  but  the  tendency  is  to 
eliminate  this  phase  of  the  work  entirely  and  to 
center  the  attention  of  the  schools  upon  the  pro- 
duction of  leaders  through  the  building  up  of  strong- 
secondary  schools  and  colleges.  The  present  pro- 
gram calls  not  for  the  multiplication  of  institutions, 
but  for  the  placing  of  those  which  already  exist 
upon  an  efficient  working  basis. 

That  the  work  is  needed  is  well  demonstrated 
by  the  fact  that  most  of  the  schools  are  filled  to 
overflowing,  and  pupils  are  continually  being 
turned  away  from  some  institutions  for  lack 
of  available  room.  The  needs  of  some  of  the 
schools  are  distressingly  urgent,  but,  fortu- 
nately, neither  The  Board  of  Education  for  Ne- 
groes nor  any  of  the  schools  under  its  care  is 
in  debt.  The  immediate  future  of  the  schools  is 
bound  up  with  the  Centenary,  and  their  fate  during 
the  next  few  years  will  be  largely  determined  by 
the  success  or  failure  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  to  carry  through  to  triumphant  conclusion 
the  magnificent  program  which  has  been  so  well 
launched. 


NEGRO  PROGRESS  33 

Other  Agencies 

While  our  attention  at  the  moment  is  chiefly  upon 
the  educational  work  of  The  Board  of  Education 
for*  Negroes,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  work  represents 
only  a  part  of  the  extended  educational  work  which 
has  been  carried  on  during-  the  last  half  century 
among  American  Negroes  by  religious  and  philan- 
thropic agencies.  The  Congregational,  Baptist,  and 
Presbyterian  churches  have  all  done  notable  work 
in  this  field  and  other  denominations  have  labored 
in  it  to  a  greater  or  less  extent.  Among  colored 
denominations  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  and 
other  churches  have  established  and  maintained 
many  schools,  some  of  which  have  done  and  are 
doing  most  effective  work.  In  addition  to  these 
denominational  schools  and  the  many  independent 
institutions  of  various  sorts,  seventeen  Southern 
States  have  established  at  State  expense  State  agri- 
cultural and  mechanical  colleges  for  Negroes,  and 
several  States  have  also  established  State  normal 
schools  for  the  training  of  Negro  teachers.  \ 


CHAPTER  II 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS 


Gammon  Theological  Seminary 

On  Christmas  Day  of  the  year 
18G5  Bishop  E.  Thomson  presided 
at  the  meeting'  of  Negro  ministers 
held  in  Wesley  Chapel,  New  Or- 
leans, at  which  the  Mississippi 
Mission  Conference,  one  of  the 
first  Colored  Conferences  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was 
organized.  There  were  present  at 
this  meeting  men  from  Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana,  Alabama,  and 
Texas.  At  an  appropriate  stage 
in  the  proceedings  the  Bishop 
said,  "And  now,  brothers,  you 
must  elect  one  of  your  number  as 
secretary." 

This  caused  some  stir  among  the  colored  brothers, 
and  at  last  one  of  them  was  obliged  to  explain  to 
the  Bishop  that,  while  several  of  those  present  had 
been  able  to  learn  to  read  a  little,  there  was  no 
one  of  them  who  could  write.  A  white  man  was 
found  to  fill  the  position. 

This  incident  is  significant,  for,  while  there  were 
many  Negro  ministers  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and 

34 


PRESIDENT 
P.    M.    WATTEPlS 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  35 

some  of  them  had  developed  much  skill  in  the  hand- 
ling of  an  audience,  they  were  of  necessity  un- 
lettered men.  One  of  the  immediate  tasks  of  edu- 
cational workers  in  the  South  was  to  teach 
ministers  to  read  so  that  they  could  read  their 
Bibles.  This  was  a  pai-t  of  the  work  in  practically 
all  of  the  schools,  but  the  ability  to  read  and  write 
alone  was  not  a  very  adequate  training  for  a  Chris- 
tian minister.  Special  courses  and  departments 
for  the  training-  of  ministers  and  candidates  for  the 
ministry  were  set  up,  and  in  some  cases  schools 
were  started  with  this  avowed  purpose.  Thus  at 
New  Orleans  University  in  Louisiana,  at  Walden 
University  in  Tennessee,  at  Rust  College  in  Missis- 
sii>pi,  at  Morgan  College  in  Maryland,  at  Cookman 
Institute  in  Florida,  and  at  other  schools  a  very 
definite  place  was  given  to  the  training  of  minis- 
ters. Naturally,  with  the  work  divided  in  this 
way,  the  number  in  a  given  department  was  bound 
to  be  small  and  the  work  could  not  be  made  most 
effective.  Some  process  of  centralization  was  in- 
evitable, and  this  was  hastened  by  the  appearance 
and  rapid  development  of  Gammon  Theological 
Seminary.  The  storj'  of  the  origin  and  growth  of 
this  school  for  the  training  of  Negro  ministers  is 
one  of  the  inspiring  chapters  of  Methodist  achieve- 
ment in  Negro  education. 

Elijah  H.  Gammon 

Elijah  H.  Gammon,  who  made  Gammon  Theo- 
logical   Seminary    possible    and    from    whom    the 


36 


:n"egro  education 


ELIJAH  H.  GAMMON 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  37 

school  received  its  name,  was  born  in  Maine  in  the 
year  1819.  He  grew  up  as  a  typical  Yankee  farmer 
boy.  engaging  in  all  the  strenuous  work  of  the 
farm  from  the  chopping  of  wood  to  the  clearing  of 
rocks  from  the  field  and  the  building  of  stone 
walls.  He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  seventeen, 
became  a  school  teacher  at  nineteen  and  entered 
the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at 
twenty-four.  Health  reasons  led  him  to  Illinois 
and  finally  in  1858  forced  him  to  give  up  preach- 
ing. He  waited  for  a  year  and  then  entered  the 
field  of  the  manufacture  of  harvesting  machinery. 
With  the  vision  of  a  captain  of  industry  he  saw  the 
rapidly  developing  AVest  with  its  extensive  harvests, 
and  he  felt  that  he  had  chosen  wisely.  The  result 
demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  his  choice. 

With  deliberation  he  set  about  his  new  task,  and 
his  achievements  were  of  a  high  order.  He  not 
only  succeeded  in  earning  a  fortune,  but  he  also 
made  a  very  substantial  contribution  to  the  devel- 
opment of  harvesting  machinery  in  this  country. 
''Easter's  Implement  World"  said  of  him  and  his 
work : 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  measure  the  iuflueuce  Mr. 
Gammon  had  in  the  successful  improvement  of  the 
methods  of  reaping  the  harvests  of  the  world,  and  also 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  development  of  the 
harvester  and  binder  used  to-day  everj^where  and  in 
all  grain  fields  from  what  was  known  and  used  twenty 
years  ago  is  due  to  him.  He  was  connected  with  its 
progress  almost  from  the  beginning  and  with  the 
experiments  made  until  the  develoinnent  of  the  success- 
ful machine  used  to-day  by  thousands  of  farmers. 


38  NEGKO  EDUCATION 

But  Mr.  Gaiiiiiion's  business  responsibilities  and 
business  success  did  not  dwarf  his  spiritual  vision. 
He  had  little  desire  to  develop  a  business  and  ac- 
cumulate money  for  purely  seliish  ends.  If  he  could 
not  serve  God  in  the  ministry,  he  was  resolved  to 
serve  him  witli  equal  fidelit}'  through  his  business. 

Mr.  Gammon  Meets  Bishop  Warren 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  one  of  those  iDrovi- 
dential  events  which  often  mean  so  much  in  the 
affairs  of  life  occurred.  A  mutual  friend  brought 
Mr.  Gammon  and  Bishop  Henry  W.  AVarren  to- 
gether. Bishop  Warren,  who  had  been  living  at 
Atlanta,  Georgia,  on  the  campus  of  Clark  Univer- 
sit}',  had  become  deeply  impressed  with  the  need  of 
a  school  for  the  training  of  Xegro  ministers.  Mr. 
Gammon,  who  had  been  actively  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  the  ]S^egro  since  early  manhood,  was 
looking  for  a  place  to  invest  some  money  where  it 
would  do  the  most  good.  In  the  American  Negro 
he  saw,  as  he  had  seen  in  the  vast  harvests  of  the 
West,  great  undeveloped  resources.  The  result  of 
the  bringing  together  of  these  two  men  was  the 
formation  of  a  "partnership,"  as  they  called  it,  for 
the  education  of  Xegro  ministers.  Neither  of  them 
fully  realized  at  the  moment  the  full  significance 
of  what  they  were  doing. 

A  Chair  of  Theology  at  Clark  University 

The  plan  was  to  establish  a  chair  of  theology  at 
Clark  University,  and  Mr.  Gammon  gave  in  1882 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  39 

|20,000  for  the  endowment  of  this  chair.  Clark 
University  published  an  announcement  of  the  new 
department,  listing. the  name  of  Professor  W.  H. 
Crogman,  a  teacher  at  Clark  University,  as  the 
Professor  of  New  Testament  Exegesis  and  adding 
that  a  Dean  and  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology 
would  be  secured  for  the  fall.  October  3,  1883,  the 
school  actually  opened ;  and  the  new  Dean  was  the 
Rev.  W.  P.  Thirkield,  who  remained  in  charge  of 
the  school  for  seventeen  years.  Nineteen  pupils 
were  received  the  first  year. 

Gammon  Theological  Seminary 

Five  years  later  the  school  was  separated  from 
Clark  University,  and,  without  the  knowledge  of 
Mr.  Gammon,  was  given  the  name  of  Gammon 
School  of  Theology,  which  was  changed  later  to 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary.  At  the  time  Mr. 
Gammon  turned  over  |200,000  to  the  school  to  be 
used  for  endowment.  Steadily  the  seminary  took 
more  of  the  time  of  Mr.  Gammon  until  it  became 
the  chief  interest  in  his  life.  Homes  for  the  pro- 
fessors, a  library  and  other  buildings  were  added 
to  the  main  building,  and  when  Mr.  Gammon  died 
in  1891  he  made  the  seminary  a  legatee  to  one  half 
the  residuary  portion  of  his  estate.  This  gift 
brought  the  endowment  of  the  seminary  up  to  half 
a  million  dollars.  Mr.  Gammon's  ambition  for  the 
school  was  summed  up  in  a  letter  written  in  1887 
in  which  he  said :  "I  would  like  to  see  it  the  best 
theological  school   of  the  whole   South,   white  or 


40  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

black."    The  last  five  months  of  Mr.  Gammon's  life 
were  spent  on  the  Gammon  campus. 

The  School  To-day 

To-day  Gammon  Theological  Seminary  occupies 
a  beautiful  campus  of  seventeen  and  a  half  acres 
just  within  the  southern  limits  of  the  city  of  At- 
lanta; Clark  University,  adjoining,  is  outside  of 
the  city.  The  land  is  high  and  rolling  and  covered 
with  a  beautiful  grove  of  pine  and  oak  trees.  The 
buildings  overlook  the  city.  On  the  campus  are  the 
main  building,  known  as  Gammon  Hall,  a  beautiful 
and  well-appointed  library,  a  modern  refectory  for 
the  students,  five  excellent  residences  for  profes- 
sors, and  ten  cottages  for  married  students.  The 
whole  forms  a  well-nigh  ideal  spot  for  study. 

President  W.  P.  Thirkield 

When  Mr.  Gammon  made  his  first  gift  for  the 
establishment  of  a  chair  of  theology  in  connection 
Avith  Clark  University,  he  stii)ulated  that  a  young 
man  should  be  secured  to  take  charge  of  the  work. 
The  minister  who  was  selected  for  this  im- 
portant task  was  the  Rev.  W.  P.  Thirkield,  now  a 
Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  then 
a  successful  young  pastor  of  the  Cincinnati  Confer- 
ence. A  graduate  of  Ohio  Wesleyan  University 
with  the  degrees  of  A.B.  and  A.M.  to  his  credit 
and  a  graduate  of  the  Boston  University  School  of 
Theology  with  the  degree  of  S.T.B.,  he  brought  to 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  41 


GAMMON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

The  Library,  Student  Cottages,  Some  of  the  Students,  Gammon 

Hall,  and  a  Professor's  Residence 


42  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Ills  task  a  thorough  training  for  his  work.  He  had 
more  than  training,  however,  for  he  had  the  energy, 
the  enthusiasm,  the  alertness  of  mind,  and  the  ex- 
ecutive ability,  without  which  the  new  school  might 
never  have  survived.  Mr.  Gammon  was  quietly 
waiting  to  see  whether  the  new  enterprise  would 
realh'  "make  good"  before  investing  largely  in  it. 
A  less  capable  and  a  less  aggressive  leader  than  Dr. 
Thirkield  would  never  have  won  his  confidence. 
For  nearly  seventeen  years  as  Dean  and  President 
Dr.  Thirkield  and  his  talented  and  cultured  wife 
gave  of  their  best  in  the  building  of  this  seminary. 
At  first  he  was  the  only  teacher;  he  laid  out  the 
course  of  stud}^ ;  he  labored  diligently  in  the  class- 
room; he  conducted  with  his  own  hand  the  corres- 
pondence with  prospective  students ;  he  presented 
the  work  unceasingly  from  the  platform ;  he  set  out 
the  trees  which  mark  the  beautiful  magnolia  drive 
leading  to  the  buildings ;  he  borrowed  money  to  buy 
a  portion  of  the  present  campus;  he  secured  the 
best  speakers  to  address  the  school ;  he  conducted 
a  history-making  congress  on  Africa ;  and,  perhaps 
most  difficult  of  all,  he  won  the  confidence  of  the 
Southern  white  man.  Sensing  the  need,  he  cour- 
ageously borrowed  money  from  relatives  for  the 
erection  of  the  first  cottages  for  married  students 
on  the  campus,  a  feature  of  the  Gammon  plan  which 
is  unique.  This  feature  alone  has  made  it  possible 
for  many  ministers  to  receive  training  who  other- 
wise would  have  been  denied  the  opportunity.  It 
is  of  incidental  interest  to  note  that  one  of  the 


TEAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  43 

recent  graduates  of  Boston  University  is  a  young 
colored  man  who  was  born  on  the  Gammon  campus 
while  his  father  was  attending  school  at  the  semi- 
nary. Thus  in  a  multitude  of  w^ays  the  courage, 
the  ability,  and  the  unselfish  devotion  of  President 
and  Mrs.  Thirkield  were  wrought  into  the  fiber  of 
the  school  and  determined  its  character  and  the 
trend  of  its  development. 

The  Faculty 

Perhaps  the  most  important  thing  about  a  theo- 
logical seminary  is  the  faculty.  At  Gammon  there 
are  seven  faculty  members,  three  of  whom  are  Ne- 
groes. The  Rev.  Philip  M.  Watters  is  the  able  and 
scholarly  President  and  Professor  of  Apologetics 
and  Christian  Ethics;  the  Rev.  J.  W.  E.  Bowen  is 
Vice-President  and  Professor  of  Church  History 
and  Religious  Education;  the  Rev.  George  H. 
Trever  is  Professor  of  New  Testament  and  Chris- 
tian Doctrine;  the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Haines  is  Li- 
brarian and  Professor  of  Public  Speaking  and  Sa- 
cred Rhetoric ;  the  Rev.  Dempster  D.  Martin  is 
Professor  of  Christian  Missions;  the  Rev.  Willis 
J.  King  is  Professor  of  Old  Testament  and  Chris- 
tian Sociology;  and  the  Rev.  M.  T.  J.  Howard  has 
recently  been  added  to  the  faculty  through  the  co- 
operation of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension  to  present  courses  dealing  with 
rural  problems  and  rural  church  w^ork.  Thus  a 
variety  of  courses  is  given  by  men  who  represent 
not  only  the  finest  Christian  spirit  and  character. 


44  XEGKO  EDUCATION 

but  also  high  scholastic  attainments  in  their  re- 
spective lields. 

Sipce  1915  the  school  has  been  under  the  com- 
petent supervision  of  the  Rev.  Philip  Melancthon 
Watters,  D.D.,  a  native  of  Xew  York  State  and  a 
graduate  of  Amherst  College  and  of  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  with  the  degree  of  D.D.  from 
Wesleyan  University.  Dr.  Watters  has  demon- 
strated his  ability  as  pastor,  district  superintend- 
ent, author,  and  educator. 

Students 

Gammon  Theological  Seminary  opened  with  two 
students  enrolled.  Since  that  time  the  enrollment 
has  totaled  1,335.  Of  these  541  have  completed  the 
prescribed  course  and  have  received  either  the  de- 
gree or  the  diploma  from  the  school.  A  little  more 
than  one  hundred  of  the  men  matriculated  have 
been  college  graduates.  Gammon  has  always  en- 
deavored to  secure  college  men,  but,  like  other 
schools  in  the  South,  it  has  suffered  from  the  woeful 
lack  of  opportunities  for  x^'imary  and  secondary 
education  in  connection  with  the  public  school  sys- 
tems. Promising  students  with  limited  training 
have,  therefore,  been  admitted  even  though  they 
have  not  had  a  fully  satisfactory  preliminary  foun- 
dation, and  special  effort  has  been  made  to  supple- 
ment this  part  of  the  student's  preparation  while 
he  has  remained  in  the  seminary.  Degrees  have, 
however,  been  given  only  to  college  graduates; 
other   students   who   complete   the   course   receive 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS 


45 


46  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

diplomas.  The  more  than  five  liiindred  graduates  of 
tlie  school  represent  the  largest  number  of  minis- 
terial graduates  from  any  theological  seminary  for 
colored  people  in  the  United  States. 

A  Broad  Ministry 

While  the  seminary  has  been  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  it  has  minis- 
tered to  students  of  many  denominations,  includ- 
ing the  Colored  Methodist  E^iiscopal,  the  African 
Methodist  Episco^^al,  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Zion,  the  Congregational,  the  Presbyterian, 
the  Episcopalian,  the  Baptist,  and  others.  To-day 
there  are  bishops,  editors,  board  secretaries,  pas- 
tors, and  other  individuals  holding  important  and 
responsible  positions  in  these  various  colored  de- 
nominations, who  received  their  theological  train- 
ing at  Gammon.  Bishop  Alexander  P.  Camphor, 
Bishop  Robert  E.  Jones,  and  many  other  leaders 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  received  their 
training  here;  also  Bishop  W.  W.  Beckett  of  the 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  Bishop 
Stewart  of  the  Colored  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  By  this  broad  ministry  Gammon  is  help- 
ing to  fulfill  one  of  the  ambitions  of  its  founder 
that  it  might  indeed  be  a  school  for  a  whole  race. 

The  Stewart  Missionary  Foundation 

One  of  the  outstanding  features  of  the  work  at 
Gammon  is  the  cooperation  of  the  Stewart  Mission- 
ary Foundation  for  Africa,  which  was  established 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  47 

in  connection  with  the  school  in  1804.  It  is  a  strik- 
ing coincidence  that  tlie  Rev.  William  Fletcher 
Stewart,  who  established  the  Fonndation,  was,  like 
Mr.  Gammon,  a  Methodist  Episcopal  minister.  He 
began  his  savings  while  working  as  a  boy  for 
twenty-five  cents  a  day,  and  he  continued  them 
when  as  a  Methodist  minister  he  received  a  salary 
of  one  hundred  dollars  per  year.  He  turned  down 
the  most  alluring  offers  outside  of  the  ministry,  and 
stayed  steadily  by  his  job.  In  spite  of  that  fact, 
however,  he  amassed  a  fortune  through  wisely  in- 
vesting his  savings  in  real  estate.  One  of  his  bene- 
factions was  the  establishment  of  the  Stewart  Mis- 
sionary Foundation  for  Africa.  The  purpose  of 
the  Foundation  is  to  relate  the  Negro  in  the  United 
States  to  the  task  of  evangelizing  Africa.  It  main- 
tains a  Chair  of  Missions  at  Gammon  Theological 
Seminary;  it  promotes  the  organization  of  the  so- 
ciety known  as  the  Friends  of  Africa;  it  gives 
prizes  for  missionary  hymns,  orations,  and  essays; 
it  provides  missionary  libraries;  and  in  various 
other  ways  undertakes  to  inform  Negroes  about 
Africa  and  to  interest  them  in  its  evangelization. 
The  work  of  the  seminary  is  greatly  enriched  by 
its  ministry. 

Summer  Work 

From  all  walks  of  life  the  students  come  up  to 
Gammon,  and,  when  the  year's  work  is  over,  they 
scatter  in  many  directions  in  order  to  get  the  means 
to  return  to  school  another  vear.     The  "North"  is 


48  NEGEO  EDUCATION 

the  Mecca  of  many.  Here  they  may  be  found  work- 
ing on  sleeping  cars,  in  diners,  in  hotels,  on  river 
boats,  and  in  multitudes  of  other  places.  The  quiet 
man  who  makes  down  berths,  dusts  coats,  or  serves 
meals  may  be  more  than  an  unimaginative  servant ; 
he  may  be  a  theological  student  preparing  himself 
to  preach  the  gosi^el  of  Jesus  Christ  to  his  own 
people. 

A  Eemarkable  School 

On  one  occasion  Bishop  F.  D.  Leete  wrote :  "It 
is  not  often  given  to  one  man  to  build  a  lighthouse 
for  a  whole  race.  Elijah  H.  Gammon  has  this 
honor."  Some  one  else  recently  described  the 
school  as  "the  only  well-equipped,  well-endowed, 
and  well-manned  theological  seminary  for  the  train- 
ing of  Negro  preachers  in  the  world.''  Up  to  date 
practicall}'  all  that  Gammon  is  from  a  material 
standpoint  has  been  due  to  the  generosity  of  Mr. 
Gammon.  His  money  erected  the  buildings  and 
provided  the  endowment,  and  it  is  still  working.  A 
new  professor's  home  has  recently  been  built  and  a 
home  for  the  Professor  of  Missions  and  Secretary  of 
the  Stewart  Missionary  Foundation  for  Africa  and 
a  new  school  building  to  give  additional  facilities 
are  in  immediate  prospect.  As  time  goes  on  the 
needs  and  opportunities  of  a  school  with  the  fine 
purpose  of  Gammon  Theological  Seminary  are 
bound  to  create  new  demands,  but  in  any  plan  for 
the  future  the  foundation  laid  by  the  consecrated 
preacher,  the  clear-headed  business  man,  and  the 


TRAINING  NEGRO  MINISTERS  49 

great-hearted  Christian,  Elijah  H.  Gammon,  and 
by  those  who  worked  with  him  will  abide. 

And  who  shall  measure  the  results  of  this  enter- 
prise? Every  year  approximately  one  hundred 
young"  colored  men  may  be  found  at  Gammon  study- 
ing to  prepare  themselves  to  go  out  to  preach  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  their  own  people.  It  was 
a  glimpse  of  the  possibilities  bound  up  in  this  lead- 
ership which  Mr.  Gammon  saw  when  he  builded  so 
wisely  and  so  securely.  The  Negro  race,  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  and  our  nation  are  immeas- 
urably indebted  to  his  foresight  and  his  generosity. 


CHAPTER  III 

TEACHING  THE  NEGRO  TO  CARE  FOR  HIS 

BODY 


The  Meharry  Colleges  and  Flint-Goodridge  Hospital  and 
Nurse  Training  School 

The  American  Negro 
has  paid  an  enormous 
price  for  liis  ignorance  of 
the  laws  of  health  and  for 
his  inability  to  care  for  his 
body.  The  slight  knowl- 
edge which  he  brought 
with  him  from  Africa,  was 
of  little  or  no  value  to  him 
in  this  connection,  and 
the  conditions  of  slavery 
were  such  as  to  place  little 
emphasis  upon  the  care  of 
the  body.  Very  little  at- 
tention was  given  to  sani- 
tation, hygiene,  a  balanced 
diet,  or  even  to  medical  treatment.  Naturally  the 
death  rate  was  enormous,  and  it  has  continued  to  be 
all  out  of  proportion  to  that  of  the  white  man  down 
to  the  present.  Either  because  of  a  natural  pre- 
disposition, or  because  of  habits  and  conditions  of 

50 


PRESIDENT  EMERITUS 

GEORGE    W.     HUBBARD,    M.D., 

AND    PRESIDENT    JOHN    J. 

MULLOWNEY,   M.D. 


CARING  FOR  HIS  BODY  51 

life,  the  Negro  has  proved  to  be  very  susceptible  to 
certain  diseases  such  as  tuberculosis  and  related 
maladies.  Thus  in  the  areas  for  which  statistics 
are  available  the  death  rate  among  Negroes  from 
tuberculosis  has  been  three  times  as  great  as  that 
for  white  people,  and  this  has  not  included  some  of 
the  most  populous  Negro  sections  of  the  country. 
Other  diseases  have  reaped  their  entirely  dispro- 
portionate totals,  and  the  cost  in  unnecessary  suf- 
fering and  economic  loss  has  been  incalculable. 
The  lives  of  multitudes  of  Negro  babies  have  been 
and  are  sacrificed  upon  the  altars  of  ignorance. 
Fortunately  the  figures,  in  the  areas  where  records 
are  available,  now  record  a  steady  improvement, 
and  this  progress  is  a  direct  result  of  the  efforts  to 
elevate  the  living  standards  of  the  Negro  and  of 
the  special  attention  given  to  training  Negroes  in 
the  care  of  their  own  bodies. 

Beginnings 

The  first  Negro  physician  in  the  United  States 
was  James  Derham.  He  was  born  a  slave  in  Phila- 
delphia. He  was  given  some  education  and  was 
employed  in  compounding  medicines.  Eventuall}" 
he  purchased  his  freedom,  moved  to  New  Orleans, 
and  there  built  up  a  successful  and  lucrative  prac- 
tice. James  McCune  Smith  was  also  a  prominent 
Negro  physician  in  ante-bellum  days.  He  was  un- 
able to  enter  a  medical  school  in  the  United  States, 
GO  he  went  to  Scotland  and  there  obtained  a  medical 
education.    He  returned  to  America,  and  practiced 


52  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

medicine  in  New  York  city  for  twenty-five  years. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  colored  man  to  es- 
tablish a  pharmacy  in  the  United  States.  In  1854 
Dr.  John  V.  DeGrasse  was  admitted  in  due  form 
as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society. 
He  was  the  first  Negro  to  become  a  member  of  a 
medical  association.  To-day  there  are  nearly  sixty 
regularly  organized  medical  associations  in  the 
United  States  made  up  of  Negroes.  The  census 
of  1910  reported  3,777  Negro  physicians  in  the 
United  States,  478  Negro  dentists,  and  2,433  Negro 
trained  nurses. 

Meharry  Medical  College,,  Nashville^  Tennessee 

In  this  rapid  development  of  Negro  medical  edu- 
cation which  has  occurred  during  the  last  half 
century  Meharry  Medical  College  has  played  a  most 
important,  if  not  the  leading,  role.  This  school, 
organized  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  1876,  had,  up 
until  January,  1921,  graduated  a  total  of  2,467 
Negro  doctors,  dentists,  and  pharmacists,  2,147  of 
whom  were  still  living.  Of  the  graduates  1,704 
were  from  the  Medical,  479  from  the  Dental,  and 
284  from  the  Pharmaceutical  Department.  At  the 
date  indicated  the  current  enrollment  of  the  col- 
lege in  these  various  departments  was.  Medical 
Department  200,  Dental  344,  Pharmaceutical  106. 

Buildings  and  Equipment 

The  school,  originally  organized  as  a  department 
of  Central  Tennessee  College   (later  Walden  Uni- 


CARING  FOR  HIS  BODY  53 

versity),  is  still  located  on  its  original  site  in  the 
city  of  Nashville.  The  buildings  and  equipment 
have,  however,  been  materially  increased.  At  pres- 
ent there  are  a  medical  building;  a  dental  building, 
which  is  also  used  to  house  the  Pharmaceutical  De- 
partment; a  commodious  and  well-appointed  hos- 
pital, known  as  the  George  W.  Hubbard  Hospital; 
the  Anderson  Anatomical  Hall,  the  gift  of  a  pre- 
vious graduate ;  the  Meharry  Auditorium ;  and  now 
the  proposed  removal  of  the  Walden  School  to  a 
new  location  will  make  available  for  the  use  of 
Meharry  some  of  the  buildings  previously  occupied 
by  Walden,  and  also  provide  room  for  further 
expansion. 

Endowment 

Meharry  Medical  College  and  its  associated  Den- 
tal and  Pharmaceutical  Colleges  have  been  sup- 
ported chiefly  from  the  proceeds  of  tuition  and  from 
appropriations  made  by  the  Freedmen's  Aid  So- 
ciety, now  known  as  the  Board  of  Education  for 
Negroes.  So  great  a  school  could  not,  however,  go 
on  permanently  without  endowment.  Fully  con- 
scious of  this  fact,  the  Board  approached  the  Carne- 
gie Foundation  and  the  General  Education  Board, 
and  each  of  these  organizations,  after  a  thorough 
investigation  of  the  history  and  work  of  Meharry, 
agreed  to  contribute  |150,000  for  endowment  pro- 
vided the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes  would 
raise  |200,000  to  add  to  the  fund.  Fortunately 
the  Centenary  of  Methodist  Missions  was  at  hand, 


54  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

and,  out  of  the  income  guaranteed  to  the  Board  of 
Education  for  Negroes,  the  |200,000  was  provided. 
Thus  Meharry  now  has  available  a  little  more  than 
a  half  million  dollars  in  endowment  funds.  The 
task  is  not  completed,  however,  for  Meharry  cannot 
be  rated  as  a  "Class  A"  medical  school  until  this 
endowment  is  doubled.  The  other  conditions  for 
this  rating  could  be  met  with  relatively  little  diffi- 
culty, if  the  endowment  funds  could  be  made  avail- 
able. This  matter  has  now  become  a  primary  one 
in  connection  with  the  future  usefulness  of  Me- 
harry, It  must  be  remembered  that  in  every  State 
Negro  doctors  must  take  the  same  examinations 
and  measure  up  to  the  same  requirements  as  white 
doctors  before  they  are  permitted  to  practice  medi- 
cine. In  some  States  already  graduates  of  "Class 
B"  medical  schools  are  not  even  permitted  to  take 
the  examinations.  Only  recently  two  urgent  re- 
quests came  in  almost  the  same  mail  to  Meharry 
for  Negro  physicians.  In  neither  of  these  States 
is  a  graduate  of  a  "Class  B"  school  permitted  to 
take  the  State  examination.  Meharry's  future  is 
largely  in  the  hands  of  those  who  have  the  resources 
to  help  relieve  this  embarrassing  situation. 

George  Whipple  Hubbard^  M.D. 

The  story  of  Meharry  can  never  be  told  without 
that  of  Dr.  George  W.  Hubbard,  who  organized 
the  school  in  1876  and  remained  its  executive  head 
for  forty-four  years.  His  resignation  took  effect 
February  1,  1921,  and  he  became  President  Emeri- 


CARING  FOR  HIS  BODY 


55 


THE  MEHARRY  COLLEGES 
SOLVING  DENTAL  PROBLEMS 


56  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

tus.  George  W.  Hubbard  was  born  in  New  Hamp- 
shire in  1841.  He  grew  up  on  a  farm,  attended 
public  school,  became  a  school  teacher,  and  in  1864 
volunteered  for  service  in  the  Christian  Commission 
in  connection  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  He 
expected  to  go  to  Atlanta,  but  a  Confederate  Gen- 
eral tore  up  the  railroad  and  left  him  stranded  in 
Nashville.  He  was  set  to  teaching  Negroes,  and 
in  that  chance  job  he  found  his  life  work.  He 
graduated  from  the  Medical  Department  of  the 
University  of  Tennessee,  and  began  to  practice 
medicine,  but  was  called  back  to  Nashville  to  under- 
take the  establishment  of  the  first  medical  school 
for  Negroes  west  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains.  He 
had  to  assist  him  the  first  year  Dr.  William  J. 
Snead,  an  ex-Confederate  surgeon.  The  school  en- 
rolled eleven  pupils  that  year.  How  seriously  Dr. 
Hubbard  has  taken  his  task  is  demonstrated  by  the 
fact  that  in  more  than  forty  years  of  service  he 
was  absent  from  the  office  for  all  causes  a  total  of 
twelve  days.  In  1886  a  Dental  Department  was 
opened  and  in  1889  a  Pharmaceutical  Department 
was  added  to  the  school.  More  recently  a  Nurse 
Training  Department  has  been  included;  it  had 
an  enrollment  of  twenty-five  during  the  year  1920- 
1921. 

Cooperation 

Among  Dr.  Hubbard's  achievements  possibly 
none  is  more  striking  than  his  success  in  enlisting 
the  cooperation  of  the  finest  Southern  people  of 


CAEING  FOR  HIS  BODY  57 

both  races.  Local  doctors,  both  white  and  black, 
have  cooperated  unstintedly  in  the  work,  and  pro- 
fessors in  the  Medical  School  of  Vanderbilt  Uni- 
versity have  shown  their  tine  Christian  spirit  by 
assisting  in  many  ways.  Nor  has  the  school  been 
limited  by  any  narrow  denominational  spirit,  and 
multitudes  of  pupils  from  other  denominations 
have  been  enrolled.  "Meharry  Day''  is  celebrated 
as  enthusiastically  in  the  Negro  Baptist  churches 
as  in  Methodist  churches.  Dr.  Hubbard's  modesty, 
his  big-brotherly  spirit,  his  sincerity,  and  his  thor- 
oughgoing devotion  to  his  work  have  won  the  con- 
fidence and  secured  the  cooperation  of  the  most 
diverse  groups. 

The  following  department  editorial  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Nashville  Banner  at  the  time  of  Dr. 
Hubbard's  retirement,  indicates  something  of  the 
high  regard  in  which  Dr.  Hubbard  has  been  held: 

There  is  a  new  President  at  Meharry  Medical  Col- 
lege. The  papers  speak  of  him  as  a  "younger  and  more 
active  man  than  the  retiring  President." 

And  it  may  be  true,  doubtless  it  is  true,  that  he  is 
both  younger  and  more  active.  But  fate,  for  all  his 
youth  and  activity,  has  set  him  a  difficult  task:  to 
follow  in  the  steps  of  Dr.  Hubbard. 

Dr.  Hubbard  came  to  the  South  when  she  was  torn 
wide  open.  Into  the  breach  he  came,  with  the  most 
difficult  task  man  could  attempt  at  that  time,  the  en- 
gineering of  a  Negro  college.  The  college  is  a  famous 
one ;  its  graduates  fill  places  of  worth  and  trust.  It  has 
a  fine  auditorium,  and  better  still,  a  perfectly  equipped 
and  satisfactory  operating  hospital. 

In  all  that  half  century  of  service,  if  there  has  been 
a  ripple  of  unrest,  a  note  of  discord,  one  single  dis- 


58  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

turbance,  or  any  breath  of  dissension  among  those  with 
whom  he  Avorked  and  for  whom — or  among  the  white 
element  of  the  town — no  word  of  such  has  ever  reached 
the  i)nblic  ear. 

The  retiring  President  has  worlied  quietly,  lived 
quietly,  retires  quietly.  He  is  no  longer  young  and 
active ;  half  a  hundred  years  ago  he  was  both.  No  one 
has  crowned  him  with  the  laurel  of  victory ;  yet  it  may 
be  that  a  halo  is  reserved  for  his  brow,  that  crown  of 
righteousness  which  is  laid  up  for  them  who  have 
fought  a  good  fight. 

The  Meharry  Brothers 

Nor  can  the  story  of  Meharry  be  told  without 
meution  of  the  "Meharry  brothers."  The  parents 
of  these  five  boys,  Alexander,  Jesse,  David,  Samuel, 
and  Hugh,  were  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry.  They 
came  to  America  in  1794,  lived  in  Pennsylvania 
four  years,  and  then  fitted  out  a  flatboat  and 
floated  down  the  Ohio  River.  They  landed  at  Man- 
chester; and,  in  a  dense  wilderness,  cleared  the 
forest  and  erected  a  frontier  cabin.  In  this  humble 
environment  a  family  of  eight  children  was  raised, 
including  five  boys.  The  father  was  killed  by  acci- 
dent while  returning  from  a  camp  meeting,  and  the 
training  of  the  children  devolved  upon  the  mother, 
a  woman  of  great  energy  and  deep  piety.  When 
the  boys  grew  older  most  of  them  moved  to  Indiana, 
where  through  industry  and  economy  they  accumu- 
lated considerable  property.  Through  Dr.  R.  S. 
Rust,  Secretary  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society 
(1868-1888),  they  became  interested  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  medical  school  for  Negroes.     Their 


CARING  FOR  HIS  BODY 


59 


gifts,  which  totaled  several  thousaiul  dollars,  made 
possible  the  starting  of  the  school,  which  was 
named  in  honor  of  them.  The  largest  single  gift 
was  possibly  from  Hngh  Meharry,  who  gave  a  farm 
valued  at  ten  thousand  dollars  as  endowment  for 
a  professorship. 


A    WALDEN    BUILDING    NOW    TURNED    OVER    TO    THE 
USE  OF  THE  MEHARRY  COLLEGES 


The  Students 

Dr.  Hubbard  always  insisted  that  his  student 
body  represented  the  very  highest  type  of  Negro, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  listen  to  the  keen,  clear-cut 
recitations  in  the  class  room,  or  to  watch  the  work 


60  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

in  the  laboratory,  dissecting  room,  hospital,  or 
clinic,  without  being  convinced  that  he  spoke  the 
truth.  Meharry  has  always  stood  for  high  ideals 
of  personal  conduct;  gambling,  profanity,  betting, 
the  use  of  whisky,  and  immoral  or  unworthy  con- 
duct are  not  tolerated.  The  use  of  tobacco  in  any 
form  is  not  permitted  in  or  about  the  college  build- 
ings. Approximately  98  per  cent  of  the  graduates 
have  been  church  members ;  and  it  is  a  striking  fact 
that  in  a  large  number  of  communities  in  the  thirty- 
seven  States  in  which  Meharry  graduates  are  prac- 
ticing they  are  the  most  active  and  effective  church 
workers  and  leaders  to  be  found.  Most  of  the  more 
than  six  hundred  students  enrolled  work  their  own 
way  through  school.  They  work  as  houseboys, 
waiters,  porters,  barbers,  and  in  sundry  other  ca- 
pacities. Many  of  them  go  regularly  on  two  meals 
a  day,  not  pausing  to  interrupt  their  work  at  the 
college  for  the  noon-day  meal.  During  the  summer 
they  may  be  found  all  over  the  North  on  Pullman 
trains,  in  hotel  service,  on  river  and  lake  boats,  in 
automobile  factories,  in  tailor  shops,  on  farms,  and 
in  other  forms  of  service,  including  teaching  and 
preaching.  Upon  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Hubbard 
former  students  contributed  the  money  to  build  him 
a  beautiful  new  home  next  to  the  college. 

The  New  President 

The  new  President  of  Meharry  is  John  J.  Mul- 
lowney,  M.D.    He  is  a  man  of  character,  experience, 


CARING  FOR  HIS  BODY  61 

and  training".  Born  in  a  humble  home  in  England, 
his  path  leads  through  an  English  orphanage,  a 
Canadian  farm,  a  store,  public  school  in  the  United 
States,  Phillips  Exeter  Academy,  the  Medical  De- 
partment of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  the 
Hopkins  Memorial  Hospital  of  Peking,  the  North 
China  Union  Medical  College,  the  public  health 
service  in  the  United  States,  and  the  Chair  of 
Science  at  Girard  College.  While  in  China  Dr. 
Mullowney  assisted  in  staying  the  ravages  of  the 
bubonic  plague,  and  was  recognized  by  the  Chinese 
Government  for  his  services.  He  is  the  author  of 
several  pamphlets  on  medical  and  public  health 
topics.  He  comes  to  Meharry  at  the  age  of  forty- 
two  with  the  spirit  of  Christian  idealism  and  with 
a  zest  for  hard  work.  Under  his  experienced  leader- 
ship, and  with  the  loyal  support  of  the  friends  of 
the  school  and  of  the  Negro,  the  future  usefulness 
of  Meharry  Medical  College  should  far  exceed  that 
which  it  has  already  achieved  in  its  most  worthy 
past. 

The  Flint-Goodridge  Hospital  and  Nurse  Training  School 
Medical  training  for  Negroes  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  not  always 
been  limited  to  Meharry  Medical  College.  In  1889 
Flint  Medical  College  was  organized  as  a  depart- 
ment of  New  Orleans  University.  The  school  was 
made  possible  by  a  generous  gift  on  the  part  of  the 
late  John  D.  Flint  of  Fall  River,  Massachusetts, 
through  Bishop  W.  F.  Mallalieu.     The  school  was 


62 


XEGRO  EDUCATION 


developed,  a  Department  of  Pharmacy  was  added 
and  a  considerable  number  of  doctors  were  gradu- 
ated. It  finally  became  clear,  however,  that,  on 
account  of  the  expense  involved  in  building  up  a 
medical  school,  it  was  good  policy  for  the  Board 

to  center  its  attention  upon 
Meharry  Medical  College. 
The  Medical  Department 
of  Flint  Medical  College 
was  transferred  to  Me- 
harry in  1011  and  the  De- 
partment of  Pharmacy  in 
'1915.  In  the  meantime  a 
school  for  the  training  of 
Negro  nurses  had  been 
started  in  1896  and  a  hos- 
pital known  as  The  Sarah 
Goodridge  Hospital  had 
been  established  in  connec- 
tion with  Flint  Medical 
College.  When  the  medi- 
cal work  was  transferred,  permission  was  se- 
cured from  the  John  D.  Flint  heirs  to  have  the 
college  endowment  remain  for  the  use  of  the  hos- 
pital. The  college  building  was  made  over  into  a 
modern  fifty-six-bed  hospital,  the  former  frame 
hospital  was  made  into  a  home  for  nurses, 
and  the  work  was  entirely  reorganized  under  the 
name  of  the  Flint-Goodridge  Hospital  and  Nurse 
Traininii"  School. 


SUPERINTENDENT 
T.   RESTIN   HEATH,    M.D. 
MRS.   HEATH 


CARING  FOR  HIS  BODY  63 

A  Double  Ministry 

This  institution  is  now  located  on  the  main  street 
of  the  downtown  section  of  New  Orleans,  Louisiana, 
where  it  is  in  a  position  not  only  to  minister  at  a 
moment's  notice  to  a  large  Negro  population,  but 
also  to  train  colored  nurses  who  will  extend  this 
ministry  still  further.  In  spite  of  limited  space  a 
recent  report  showed  872  hospital  patients  for  the 
year  and  more  than  4,000  clinic  patients  treated, 
1,200  of  whom  received  free  treatment.  The  num- 
ber of  carefully  selected  young  women  enrolled  for 
training  here  in  July,  1921,  was  twenty-two.  And 
the  training  which  the  students  receive  is  a  thor- 
ough one.  The  course  of  study  was  outlined  in 
minute  detail  by  a  former  superintendent.  Dr.  R.  T. 
Fuller.  It  includes  medical  nursing,  anatomy  and 
physiology,  practical  nursing,  dietetics,  bacteri- 
ology and  pathology,  fever  nursing,  hygiene,  surgi- 
cal nursing,  obstetrics,  gynecology,  materia  medica, 
ethics,  jurisprudence,  chemistry,  children's  dis- 
eases, anaesthetics,  X-ray,  emergency  surgery,  mas- 
sage, and  practical  training  at  the  bedside,  in  the 
operating  room,  diet  kitchen,  and  clinic.  The 
nurses  who  have  graduated  from  Flint-Goodridge 
Hospital  have  done  remarkably  well  in  the  State 
examinations.  On  a  recent  examination  the  lowest 
average  was  92  per  cent.  At  another  recent  exami- 
nation one  of  the  graduates  received  three  grades 
of  100  per  cent.  Graduates  of  this  school  are 
already  filling  important  places  in  hospitals,  on 


64  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

private  cases,  in  Red  Cross  work,  in  child  welfare 
work,  and  in  similar  fields. 

The  Workers 

The  superintendent  of  this  very  important  work 
is  Dr.  T.  Restin  Heath,  a  man  who  has  had  twelve 
years  of  successful  practice  as  a  physician  and 
surgeon  and  also  served  in  the  ministry,  Mrs. 
Heath  is  a  thoroughly  trained  and  experienced 
nurse,  at  one  time  serving  as  head  nurse  in  the 
Santa  Fe  Hospital  in  San  Francisco,  California. 
The  house  surgeon  is  a  graduate  of  Meharry  Medi- 
cal College,  as  is  also  the  hospital  interne.  The 
head  nurse  is  a  graduate  of  Flint-Goodridge  and 
also  a  post-graduate  of  Lincoln  Hospital  in  New 
York  City.  Several  other  workers  are  graduates 
of  Flint-Goodridge. 

The  Need 

The  hospital  facilities  for  Negroes  in  this  part 
of  the  South  are  chiefly  conspicuous  for  their  ab- 
sence, and  the  need  is  almost  overwhelming.  In 
the  city  of  New  Orleans,  in  certain  Negro  districts, 
open  drains,  unclean  streets,  and  unsanitary  living 
conditions  are  steadily  exacting  their  heavy  toll. 
The  field  of  the  district  nurse  both  here  and  in  the 
rural  sections  is  almost  unlimited.  In  the  midst 
of  this  uncomputed  need  Flint-Goodridge  is  min- 
istering in  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  many  who 
come  to  find  spiritual  healing  also  have  their  spirit- 
ual lives  renewed  in  the  fine  Christian  atmosphere 


CARIXG  FOR  HIS  BODY 


05 


FLINT-GOODRIDGE 

The  Hospital,  Near-by  Dwellings,  In  Line  for  the  Clinic, 

The  Head  Nurse,  a  Group  of  Nurses  in  Training 


66  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

of  the  hospital.  Yet  the  institution  with  its  limited 
facilities  is  obliged  to  turn  a\yay  patients  who 
ought  to  be  received,  to  refuse  to  do  work  which 
ought  to  be  done,  and  to  train  a  smaller  number  of 
nurses  than  ought  to  be  trained.  The  fond  vision  of 
the  workers  is  that  of  an  adequate  new,  modern 
hospital  of  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  beds, 
where  semi-tropical  diseases  may  be  studied  and 
treated  scientifically,  where  the  number  of  nurses 
in  training  can  be  greatly  increased,  and  where  the 
Negro  physicians  and  surgeons  of  the  region  may 
b-ive  a  chance  to  minister  to  their  very  needy  fel- 
lows under  the  best  of  conditions. 


CHAPTER  IV 


BUILDING  A  UNIVERSITY 


Clark  "University  and  Cookman  Institute 

In  the  year  18G9  the  Rev.  J.  W. 
Lee  opened  in  Clark  Chapel,  At- 
lanta, Georgia,  a  small  primary 
school  for  Negro  children.  Eleven 
years  later  (1880)  Bishop  Gilbert 
Haven  looked  out  from  a  hilltop 
a  mile  south  of  the  city  of  Atlanta 
over  a  pine  forest  of  several  hun- 
dred acres  which  had  been  pur- 
chased as  a  location  for  this  same 
school  and  said :  "I  guess  now 
folks  will  believe  that  we  have 
come  to  stay.  They  haven't  be- 
lieved it  before." 

The  courage  and  vision  of 
Bishop  Haven  made  possible  the  securing  of  this 
beautiful  and  valuable  property  which  Clark  Uni- 
versity has  so  long  occujiied.  There  was  much  op- 
position to  the  project,  and  the  Bishop  appeared 
to  be  the  only  one  who  really  believed  in  it.  The 
location  was  more  than  a  mile  from  the  corporation 
limits;  there  was  no  pavement,  and  no  regular 
means  of  communication  with  the  city;  an  old  bus 
was  necessary  to  meet  trains  when  students  were 

67 


PRKSIDENT 
HARRY    A.    KING 


G8  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

arriving,  and  provisions  liad  to  be  drawn  from 
town  by  mule  cart;  there  was  no  adequate  water 
supply.  When  the  rains  came  the  red  Georgia  mud 
made  the  roads  almost  impassable,  and  the  drink- 
ing water  took  on  the  color  of  the  mud  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  food  was  more  or  less  regularly 
tinged  with  red.  Whatever  the  comjilexion  of  the 
students  and  faculty  members  outside,  they  were 
always  sure  to  be  red  inside. 

Doubters  insisted  that  no  one  would  ever  come 
out  to  such  a  place  to  attend  school,  but  the  Bishop 
was  unmoved.  As  he  looked  out  from  the  command- 
ing vantage  point  toward  the  city  he  declared  un- 
hesitatingly, ''It  will  not  be  necessary  to  carry  the 
school  to  the  pupils ;  they  will  come  to  it." 

And  come  they  did  from  the  very  first.  To-day 
the  coming  is  not  a  difficult  process,  for  Atlanta  has 
extended  her  limits  to  the  very  doors  of  the  univer- 
sity, and  electric  cars  pass  the  entrance.  Modern 
conveniences  have  taken  the  place  of  the  discom- 
forts of  early  days,  and  the  university  occupies 
one  of  the  most  desirable  locations  to  be  found 
about  Atlanta. 

The  School  Property 

One  part  of  Bishop  Haven's  plan  did  not  fully 
materialize.  He  had  thought  that  the  large  acreage 
would  make  it  possible  for  poor  students  to  support 
themselves  while  they  were  getting  their  education, 
but  matters  did  not  work  out  exactly  that  way.  A 
very  productive  farm  is  maintained  by  the  univer- 


BUILDING  A  UNIVERSITY  69 

sity,  however,  and  milkj  eggs,  pork,  potatoes, 
grain,  and  vegetables  are  provided  in  abundance 
for  the  use  of  the  boarding  hall.  Originally 
the  school  owned  six  hundred  acres,  but  this  has 
been  reduced  to  less  than  four  hundred.  It  is 
hoped  that  as  this  property  becomes  more  valuable 
it  can  be  sold  for  building  lots,  and  the  proceeds 
made  available  as  an  endowment  fund  for  the  uni- 
versity. Already  |30,000  worth  of  land  has  been 
sold  and  the  proceeds  turned  into  endowment  for 
the  school.  A  portion  of  the  property  lies  within 
the  city  limits,  although  the  campus  itself  is  just 
outside  of  the  line. 

Bishop  Warren's  Contribution 

The  vision  of  Bishop  Gilbert  Haven  was  respon- 
sible for  the  location  of  the  school,  and  the  genius 
of  Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren  determined  the  type 
of  its  development.  He  believed  in  the  future 
of  industrial  education,  and  he  desired  to  see  it 
promoted  at  Clark.  He  erected  a  building  for  in- 
struction and  training  in  blacksmithing,  and  he 
followed  this  with  a  similar  building  for  carpentry 
and  wood  working  purposes.  Working  in  coopera- 
tion with  I'resident  E.  O.  Thayer  he  provided  a 
Home  for  girls  where  training  in  various  household 
arts  and  in  home-making  might  be  carried  on.  The 
building  was  given  to  the  Woman's  Home  Mission- 
ary Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  on 
condition  that  it  provide  the  furnishings  for  the 
new  building,  and  secure  a  superintendent.  This  be- 


70  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

came  therefore  the  tirst  "model  Home"  of  the  Wom- 
an's Home  Missionary  Society.  For  a  time  the  John 
F.  Slater  Fund  cooperated  in  the  industrial  work  at 
Clark,  appropriatin**  at  one  time  as  much  as  five 
thousand  dollars  a  year  for  the  purpose.  The  work 
was  developed  to  such  a  point  that  the  best  car- 
riages, hearses,  express  wagons,  and  similar  vehi- 
cles made  in  Atlanta  were  said  to  have  been  made 
in  the  shops  on  Clark  University  campus.  Gradu- 
ally conditions  changed,  appropriations  were  with- 
drawn, the  difficulties  of  carrying  on  industrial 
work  increased,  and  the  conviction  steadily  devel- 
oped that  the  particular  mission  of  Clark  Univer- 
sity did  not  lie  along  the  line  of  industrial  training, 
but  rather  in  the  more  commonly  accepted  field  of 
the  college  and  the  university.  To-day  less  em- 
phasis is  put  upon  industrial  training  at  Clark, 
although  the  training  for  the  girls  started  by 
Bishop  Warren  is  now  carried  on  in  Thayer  Home 
under  the  very  efficient  direction  of  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society. 

Recent  Development 

Among  former  presidents  of  Clark  University 
should  be  mentioned  Dr.  Charles  M.  Melden,  who 
served  as  the  executive  of  the  school  for  six  years 
and  did  much  to  build  up  its  Normal  Department. 
He  is  now  president  of  New  Orleans  College. 

For  six  years  now,  under  the  efficient  leadership 
of  President  Harry  Andrews  King,  and  supported 
b}"  the  wise  counsels  and  optimistic  and  enthusiastic 


BUILDING  A  UNIVERSITY  71 

spirit  of  Bishop  F.  D.  Leete  and,  more  recently,  of 
Bishop  E.  G.  Richardson,  Clarlv  University  has 
moved  steadily  forward.  At  present  the  univer- 
sity bids  fair  to  become  one  of  the  important  cen- 
ters for  advanced  Ne<>ro  education. 

A  recent  report  from  President  King  says,  among 
other  things :  "The  physical  equipment  of  the 
school  was  never  in  better  condition.  .  .  .  Every 
frame  building  on  the  campus  has  been  painted  and 
otherwise  renovated,  and  all  other  buildings  over- 
hauled and  repaired.  .  .  .  Over  |4,100  has  been 
spent  this  year  on  new  equipment,  most  of  it  for 
furniture  for  dormitories  and  classrooms  made 
necessary  by  our  largely  increased  enrollment. 
.  .  .  We  have  been  literally  overrun  with  students 
this  year.  Every  available  room  in  all  our  dormi- 
tories has  been  filled.  .  .  .  The  total  enrollment  is 
448,  an  increase  of  184  in  two  years.  ...  In  the 
past  five  years  our  total  budget  has  increased  from 
117,000  to  154,000— more  than  300%— our  receipts 
from  students  has  grown  from  $4,800  to  |2G,000 — 
an  increase  of  about  500%." 

And  the  religious  life  of  the  students  is  well 
cared  for.  The  students  regularly  attend  preach- 
ing services ;  a  model  Sunday  school  is  in  operation 
on  the  campus.  The  students  maintain  an  Epworth 
League,  a  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  and 
a  Young  Women's  Christian  Association.  Daily 
devotional  services  and  a  weekly  prayer  meeting 
are  held,  and  other  special  religious  programs  are 
carried  out. 


72 


NEGRO  EI)U(\\TION 


BUILDING  A  UNIVERSITY  73 

Leete  Hall 

Perhaps  the  ontstandinjj;  recent  event  on  the 
campus  at  Clark  is  the  erection  of  Leete  Hall,  the 
magnificent  new  main  building,  which  has  been 
made  possible  by  the  advance  program  of  the  Cen- 
tenary. Amid  a  crowd  of  prominent  visitors  and 
friends  of  the  university  the  corner  stone  of  this 
building  was  laid  October  27,  1920.  It  really 
marked  the  beginning  of  a  new  epoch  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  school,  for  this  fine  new  structure, 
costing  |200,000,  cannot  fail  to  affect  the  whole 
spirit  and  program  of  the  institution.  The  new 
building  is  prominently  and  conveniently  located 
on  the  campus.  It  will  serve  as  the  main  adminis- 
tration and  recitation  building  for  the  school  with 
a  lal)oratory  for  the  Science  De- 
partment on  the  third  floor.  At 
one  end  of  the  long  structure  is  a 
modern  gymnasium  with  adequate 
facilities,  including  a  swimming 
pool.  An  extension  at  the  other 
end  of  the  building  forms  "Crog- 
man  Chapel." 

Professor  Crogman 


It  is  most  appropriate  that  the 
name  of  Professor  William  H. 
Crogman,  Litt.D.,  should  be  asso- 
ciated   with    this    beautiful    new       "" 

-.  I      J.  rM        T      TT     '  -J.  PROFESSOR 

cbapel,  tor  Clark  Lniversity  owes      wm.  h.  crogman 


74  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

much  to  the  scholastic  attainments,  the  faithful  and 
efficient  labors,  and  the  beautiful  Christian  spirit 
of  Dr.  Crogman.  Born  in  the  West  Indies  in  1841, 
he  was  left  an  orphan  at  twelve  years  of  age.  For 
ten  3'ears  he  followed  the  sea,  when,  encouraged  by 
the  mate  of  the  vessel  on  which  he  was  sailing,  he 
entered  school  in  Massachusetts.  Of  him  his 
teacher  said : 

He  surpassed  every  one  of  the  hundreds  of  students 
in  both  rapidity  of  advaucemeut  aud  in  accuracy  of 
scholarshi]).  He  accomplished  as  much  iu  one  quarter 
as  the  average  student  did  in  two,  mastering  almost 
iustiuctivelj'-aud  with  equal  facility  both  mathematical 
aud  linguistic  principles. 

In  1870  Mr.  Crogman  became  a  teacher  in  Claf- 
lin  University,  being  the  first  Negro  to  be  regularly 
employed  by  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  in  its 
school  work.  He  stopped  teaching  long  enough  to 
take  a  full  course  at  Atlanta  University,  and  in 
1876  he  joined  the  faculty  of  what  is  now  Clark 
University.  Since  that  time  his  service  has  been 
continuous  and  varied.  For  seven  years  he  served 
as  president  of  Clark,  and  under  his  leadership  the 
school  grew  both  in  numbers  and  strength.  He  is 
the  only  secretary  of  the  Boards  of  Trustees  of 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary  and  of  Clark 
University  these  organizations  have  ever  had,  and 
the  records  have  been  most  accurately  kept  in 
a  remarkably  beautiful  and  regular  hand.  For 
twenty-nine  years  he  was  superintendent  of  the 
Sunday  school  at  Clark,  and  he  has  the  reputation 


BUILDING  A  UXIVI]RSITY  75 

of  never  having  been  tardy  during  that  period. 
Three  times  he  was  a  delegate  to  the  General  Con- 
ference, and  he  has  the  distinction  of  having  been 
the  only  individual  to  receive  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Letters  from  Atlanta  University.  He  is  the  au- 
thor of  several  books,  and  he  has  spoken  widely 
from  the  public  platform,  supplying  upon  special 
invitation  the  pulpit  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's 
church.  At  the  time  of  the  Atlanta  race  riots,  when 
it  was  falsely  rumored  that  Clark  University  had 
harbored  Negro  criminals,  one  of  the  leading  At- 
lanta papers  published  a  strong  editorial  in  defense 
of  Dr.  Crogman,  then  president  of  the  school,  and 
declared :  "This  rumor  is  entirely  and  absolutely 
undeserved." 

It  is  indeed  fitting  that  the  new  chapel  should 
bear  the  name  of  the  faithful  servant,  the  Christian 
gentleman,  and,  in  the  words  of  one  of  his  recent 
students,  "the  noblest  Roman  of  them  all."' 

At  the  1921  commencement  season  Dr.  Crogman 
retired  from  active  teaching.  The  Carnegie  Foun- 
dation granted  him  a  pension  for  life. 

The  Alumni 

Clark  has  more  to  show  for  its  half  century  of 
labor  than  a  beautiful  campus  and  a  group  of  sub- 
stantial and  useful  buildings.  To  call  the  roll 
would  take  some  time,  for  the  list  of  graduates  in- 
cludes college  presidents,  professors,  teachers,  dis- 
trict superintendents,  ministers,  laymen,  business 
men,  doctors,  lawyers,  and  many  others.    The  read- 


76 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


ing  of  a  recent  number  of  the  school  Bulletin  re- 
veals the  fact  that  some  of  the  younger  graduates 
are  holding  the  following  positions :  editor  of  the 
Southwestern  Christian  Advocate;  recreational 
secretary  of  a  civic  league;  instructor  in  biology; 
agency  director  of  the   Standard   Life   Insurance 


CROGMAN  CHAPEL 


Company ;  teacher  at  Prairie  View  College ;  prac- 
ticing medicine  in  Birmingham ;  member  of  staff 
of  Harlem  Hospital,  New  York  city ;  executive  sec- 
retary of  a  Y.  W.  C.  A. ;  real  estate  dealer ;  lawyer ; 
manager  of  a  laundry ;  several  practicing  medicine ; 
several  teaching;  president  of  the  Clover  Leaf 
Chemical  Company;  student  in  Boston;  student  at 


BUILDING  A  UXIVEKJSITY  77 

Meharry ;  student  at  Howard  University ;  president 
of  Skvland  Amusement  Company;  State  Y.  M.  C  A. 
secretary;  four  in  the  auditing  department  of  the 
Standard  Life  Insurance  Company;  twenty-two  in 
the  public  schools  of  Atlanta;  eight  attended  sum- 
mer school  at  Columbia  Universit}  ;  and  four  were 
on  a  trip  to  South  America.  These  gleanings  from 
a  current  number  of  the  school  Bulletin  are  a  per- 
tinent indication  of  the  wide  variety  of  activities 
taken  up  by  the  graduates  of  Clark,  and  of  the  mul- 
titude of  fields  in  which  they  find  opportunity  to 
render  service. 

Clark  University  is  training  real  people  for  real 
life  tasks.  It  has  many  things  yet  to  achieve,  but 
it  is  making  genuine  and  rapid  progress,  and  it 
seems  destined  to  fill  an  increasingly  important 
place  in  the  education  of  a  race  whose  education, 
in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  done,  is  only  well  begun. 

Cookman  Institute 

Associated  with  Clark  Universit}',  but  located  at 
Jacksonville,  Florida,  is  Cookman  Institute.  This 
school  was  founded  in  1872  by  the  Rev.  S.  B.  Dar- 
nell. It  was  named  after  the  Rev.  Alfred  Cookman, 
a  Methodist  minister,  who  gave  money  for  the  erec- 
tion of  the  first  building. 

A  Unique  Ministry 

Cookman  was  the  first  institution  for  the  higher 
education  of  Xeiiroes  established  in  the  State  of 


78 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


Florida,  and  for  a  long  time  it  was  the  only  school 
of  the  kind  in  the  State.  In  point  of  service  no 
other  institution  of  the  sort  equals  it.  For  nearly 
half  a  century  it  has  maintained 
a  high  moral,  spiritual,  and  intel- 
lectual standard  for  the  thousands 
of  young  men  and  women  who 
have  come  under  its  influence. 
Many  colored  people  in  Florida" 
love  and  honor  "Old  Cookman" ; 
and  the  names  of  Dr.  Darnell  and 
"Miss  Lillie,"  the  familiar  name  of 
Miss  Lillie  M.  Whitney,  a  former 
and  greatly  loved  teacher,  are 
fond  memories  with  them.  Many 
of  the  early  pupils  were  ex-slaves, 
and  their  eagerness  to  learn  was 
most  touching.  Old  men  and  old 
women  sat  side  by  side  with  boys 
and  girls  in  the  classes.  Both  a  night  school  and  a 
dav  school  were  conducted. 


PRINCIPAL 
ISAAC    H,    MILLER 


A  New  Location 

x\t  the  time  of  the  great  Jacksonville  fire  in  1901 
all  of  the  buildings  of  this  school  were  destroyed. 
It  was  decided  to  secure  a  new  location  before  re- 
building, in  order  to  get  the  school  a  little  farther 
from  the  center  of  town.  This  plan  was  carried 
out,  and  the  school  is  now  conveniently  located  on 
a  very  satisfactory  campus  toward  the  outskirts  of 
the  city.     The  school  has  two  substantial  and  at- 


BUILDING  A  UNIVERSITY  79 

tractive  school  buildings  and  a  home  for  the  prin- 
cipal. There  is  room  in  the  dorndtories  for  about 
seventj-five  students  only  in  addition  to  the  day 
students.  The  buildings  are  equipped  with  modern 
conveniences,  and  they  have  recently  been  entirely 
renovated  and  put  into  first  class  condition.  The 
playground  is  large  and  freely  used,  and  a  portion 
of  the  seven-acre  campus  is  used  for  a  very  suc- 
cessful school  garden.  The  current  enrollment  of 
the  school  is  about  two  hundred  and  fifty. 

Courses 

Cookman  has  classes  in  all  the  elementary  grades 
and  in  the  four  high  school  grades.  In  addition 
there  are  special  courses  in  normal  training,  music, 
domestic  science,  sewing,  and  public  speaking.  It 
is  proposed  to  add  courses  in  sewing,  shoemaking, 
printing,  business,  and  agriculture.  The  need  for 
the  sort  of  work  which  Cookman  can  do  is  still  very 
great.  Everywhere  the  educational  opportunities 
for  the  Negro  are  inadequate,  and  ('ookman's  fu- 
ture, particularly  as  a  training  school  for  teachers, 
is  bright.  Nearly  half  the  population  of  Jackson- 
ville is  colored,  and  the  demand  for  teachers  is 
large.  Then,  too,  from  Cookman  there  must  con- 
tinue that  stream  of  selected  young  people  who  will 
go  on  to  further  study  at  Clark,  Meharry,  Gam- 
mon, and  other  colleges  and  professional  schools. 

A  New  Day 
During  the  last  few  years,  or  since  its  association 


80 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


for  general  administrative  purposes  with  Clark 
University,  a  new  day  of  usefulness  has  opened  for 
Cookman.  President  King's  first  act  was  to  select 
Professor  Isaac  H.  Miller  of  Clark  to  serve  as  prin- 


COOKMAN  INSTITUTE 


cipal  of  Cookman.  The  results  have  demonstrated 
that  the  choice  was  a  wise  one.  Principal  Miller 
is  a  native  of  Mississippi.  He  worked  his  way 
through  Rust  College  and  later  studied  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago.  He  was  in  the  employ  of  the 
United  States  Government  for  a  time  and  then  en- 
tered the  teaching  profession.  In  1913  he  was 
called  to  Clark  University  to  take  charge  of  the 
Xornuil  Department  of  the  university.  For  six 
years  he  held  this  position  with  credit  to  himself 


BUILDING  A  UNIVERSITY  81 

and  with  profit  to  the  school.  Upon  being-  sent  to 
Cookman  he  took  up  his  taslv  quietly  but  energeti- 
cally. Under  his  capable  leadership  the  school 
has  been  transformed  both  physically  and  spiritu- 
ally. 

The  Alumni 

Cookman  never  forgets  that  she  is  a  Christian 
school  and  emphasis  is  put  ui)on  the  development 
of  the  moral  and  religious  life.  This  training  has 
shown  itself  in  the  lives  of  its  alumni.  The  16G 
young  men  and  women  who  have  graduated  from 
Cookman  and  the  multitudes  of  others  who  have 
attended  the  school  have  gone  out  to  fill  many  im- 
portant posts.  One  became  a  Bishop  of  the  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  another  became  a 
judge,  and  a  third  is  the  Minister  of  the  United 
States  Government  to  Haiti.  The  list  includes 
man}^  others. 

The  fine  spirit  of  the  alumni  is  well  expressed 
by  a  recent  graduating  class  which  left  a  gift  of 
1140  for  the  school,  and  in  presenting  it  said : 

For  four  years  we  have  been  studying  in  the  institute 
the  philosojihy  of  true  living.  These  have  been  happy 
years.  We  leave  our  Ahua  Mater  with  a  deep  love  for 
her  history  and  traditions;  and  we  shall  retain  the 
habit  of  study  which  we  have  learned  here.  What  we 
have  learned  here  can  never  be  taken  from  us.  We 
look  upon  our  dear  school  with  much  honor  and  grati- 
tude. .  .  .  Deep  within  our  hearts  we  are  wishing  that 
our  dear  Alma  Mater  may  attain  a  yet  grander  future 
than  has  ever  vet  been  dreamed  for  her. 


CHAPTER  V 


AN  EASTERN  COLLEGE 


Morgan  College  and  Princess  Anne  Academy 

On  Christinas  Eve  in  tlie  year 
1866  five  interested  men  gathered 
in  a  room  in  the  city  of  Baltimore 
to  consider  the  question  of  the  or- 
ganization of  a  school  for  Negroes 
in  that  city.  The  conference  re- 
snlted  in  the  appointment  of  a 
temporary  board  of  trnstees  for 
the  proposed  institution.  On  the 
25th  of  November  of  the  following 
year  a  charter  was  granted  to  the 
school  nnder  the  name  Centenary 
Biblical  Institnte.  Soon  after  this 
a  few  candidates  for  the  Chris- 
tian ministry  were  enrolled  in 
classes  and  these  classes  met  in  local  churches. 
The  subjects  taught  were  those  deemed  appropriate 
as  a  preparation  for  the  ministry.  Those  pupils 
who  needed  further  training  in  the  common  Eng- 
lish branches  were  sent  to  the  Baltimore  Normal 
School  and  their  tuition  was  paid. 

A  Home  for  the  School 
But  a  school  needs  a  home,  and  a  home  was  dili- 

82 


PRESIDENT 
JOHN    O.    SPENCER 


AN  EASTERN  COLLEGE  83 

gently  sought  for  this  new  institution.  Finally  a 
dwelling  house,  located  at  44  Saratoga  Street,  was 
purchased  and  transformed  for  school  purposes. 
On  October  9,  1869,  the  school  was  formally  opened 
in  its  new  home.  The  Rev.  J.  Emory  Round  was 
made  principal.  Although  soon  outgrowing  its 
facilities,  the  school  remained  in  its  original  quar- 
ters for  eleven  years.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  John  F. 
Goucher  then  donated  a  lot  at  the  corner  of  Fulton 
and  Edmondson  Avenues,  upon  which  a  fine  new 
stone  building  was  erected.  The  corner-stone  was 
laid  June  IG,  1880. 

Changed  to  Morgan  College 

The  scope  of  the  school,  Avhich  had  been  started 
with  the  primary  purpose  of  training  young  Negro 
ministers,  enlarged  as  the  years  passed.  The  cur- 
riculum was  gradually  expanded  to  include  normal 
and  other  academic  courses,  and  women  were  ad- 
mitted to  the  school  on  the  same  basis  as  men.  In 
1890  a  new  charter  was  secured  and  the  name  was 
changed  to  Morgan  College  in  honor  of  Dr.  Lyttle- 
ton  F.  Morgan,  president  of  the  Board  of  Trustees. 
The  school  endeavored  to  maintain  high  scholastic 
standards,  and  the  work  commended  itself  to  Mr. 
Andrew  Carnegie  so  that  after  careful  investiga- 
tion he  offered  to  give  fifty  thousand  dollars  for 
the  erection  of  a  college  building  on  condition  that 
the  school  raise  an  equal  amount  for  college  endow- 
ment.   The  school  did  its  part  and  raised  the  fifty 


84  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

thousand  dollars,  more  than  half  of  which  was 
i»iven  by  colored  people.  At  that  time  it  was  ex- 
pected that  the  building  wonld  be  erected  near  the 
old  site  on  Edmondson  Avenue.  It  became  evident, 
however,  that  the  school  would  not  have  adequate 
room  for  expansion  there,  and  the  new  building- 
was  postponed  until  a  suitable  location  could  be 
secured. 

In  all  of  the  progress  made  Dr.  John  F.  Goucher, 
who  for  many  years  has  been  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  has  been  a  helpful  and  inspiring 
factor.  He  has  given  of  his  time,  talents,  and 
money  to  the  furtherance  of  the  plans  of  Morgan 
College  and  its  branch  schools.  He  has  stood  side 
by  side  with  President  J.  O.  Spencer,  who  with  the 
skill  born  of  experience  and  large  cx;ecutive  ability 
has  guided  the  school  out  into  its  present  large  field 
of  usefulness. 

The  Present  Location 

After  diligent  search  a  suitable  property  was  dis- 
covered just  at  the  outskirts  of  the  city  of  Balti- 
more, and  the  Ivy  Mills  tract  of  forty-two  acres 
was  purchased  June  1,  1917.  This  property,  located 
at  Hillen  Road  and  Arlington  Avenue,  has  since  its 
IDurchase  been  made  a  part  of  the  city  of  Baltimore. 
The  right  to  purchase  and  hold  this  property  for 
purposes  of  Negro  education  was  sharply  contested 
in  the  courts,  but  was  fully  established.  On  Septem- 
ber 27,  1919,  an  additional  adjoining  tract  of  forty- 


AN  EASTERN  COLLEGE 


85 


MORGAN  COLLEGE 
Carnegie  Hall  and  Other  Campus  Views 


86  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

three  acres  was  pni-cliased.  The  school  now  has  a 
large  and  beautiful  tract  of  land  conveniently  lo- 
cated and  remarkably  adapted  for  the  development 
of  the  future  plans  for  the  institution.  The  prop- 
erty when  purchased  had  ujDon  it  a  considerable 
number  of  large,  attractive,  and  substantial  stone 
buildings.  Several  of  these  have  already  been 
transformed  at  considerable  expense  for  school 
purposes,  and  some  new  buildings  have  been 
erected.  The  chief  new  building  is  Carnegie  Hall, 
made  possible  by  the  earlier  gift  of  Mr.  Carnegie. 
This  is  strictly  a  college  building.  It  is  a  three- 
story,  fireproof  structure,  heated  by  steam,  lighted 
by  electricity,  and  provided  with  gas  for  laboratory 
purposes.  It  has  a  fireproof  vault  for  college  rec- 
ords, and  affords  many  other  modern  school  con- 
veniences. Altogether  it  is  an  excellent  type  of 
modern  school  construction.  Several  of  the  older 
buildings  have  been  converted  into  dormitories, 
and  one  of  the  largest  ones,  which  once  served  as  a 
hotel,  has  been  turned  over  to  Morgan  Academy. 

Campus  and  Farm 

The  campus  is  a  rolling  one,  and  it  affords  many 
pleasing  views.  A  stream  of  water  adds  to  its 
beauty.  Barns  and  other  farm  buildings  are  on 
the  property.  It  is  expected  that  a  considerable 
amount  of  training  in  agriculture  can  now  be  in- 
cluded in  the  work  of  the  school.  An  adequate 
dairy  has  yet  to  be  provided. 


AN  EASTERN  COLLEGE  87 

Students  and  Courses 

The  work  of  the  school  begins  with  the  first  year 
high-school  grade  and  continues  through  the  four 
years  of  college  work.  On  account  of  the  inferior 
work  done  in  some  of  the  public  schools  it  has  been 
necessary  to  maintain  a  pre-high  school  class  in 
addition  to  the  regularly  advertised  courses.  Of 
the  boarding  pupils  about  one  third  are  in  the  Col- 
lege Department  proper.  Rigid  standards  have 
been  maintained  in  this  department  and  the  gradu- 
ates from  it  have  been  a  credit  to  the  school.  The 
A.B.  from  Morgan  has  been  accepted  by  some  of 
the  best  Northern  schools  as  a  satisfactory  pre- 
liminary for  those  students  who  have  desired  to  do 
post-graduate  work  with  a  view  to  securing  the 
A.M.  or  other  advanced  degrees. 

Summer  School  and  Extension  Work 

Morgan  College  considers  the  training  of  teach- 
ers one  of  its  important  tasks.  Emphasis  is  put 
upon  normal  training  in  connection  with  the  regu- 
lar course,  and  during  the  summer  a  large  and 
effective  summer  school  for  public  school  teachers 
is  maintained.  In  addition  to  this  the  school  sup- 
ports an  extension  department  particularly  for  the 
benefit  of  colored  teachers  employed  in  the  city 
of  Baltimore.  Twenty-six  teachers  have  recently 
been  taking  college  work  in  connection  with  Mor- 
gan on  this  plan.  The  industrial  phases  of  the 
school  work  are  still  in  their  infancy,  but  it  is  ex- 


88  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

pected  to  make  them  an  important  feature  of  the 
work  now  that  there  is  room  for  their  development. 

Combining  Virginia  Collegiate  and  Industrial 

Institute 

On  December  10,  1017,  the  buildings  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Collegiate  and  Industrial  Institute,  located 
at  Lynchburg,  Virginia,  were  destroyed  bv  lire,  and 
it  was  deemed  wise  as  a  matter  of  policy  to  unite 
this  school  with  Morgan  College.  Accordingly  this 
school,  which  was  organized  in  Lynchburg  in  1892, 
and  which  had  done  very  effective  work  there,  was 
moved  to  Baltimore  in  January,  1018,  and  estab- 
lished on  the  new  Morgan  site.  It  thus  arrived 
ahead  of  Morgan  College  itself,  which  did  not  take 
up  its  location  on  the  new  grounds  until  the  follow- 
ing September.    The  two  schools  are  now  combined. 

Results  and  Needs 

Morgan  College  has  for  its  main  colored  constitu- 
ency the  Washington  and  Delaware  ('onferences  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  but  the  results 
of  its  work  have  not  been  limited  either  by  geo- 
graphical or  denominational  lines.  One  of  the 
leading  bishops  of  the  African  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  was  trained  here.  Bishop  Matthew  W. 
Clair,  now  in  Africa,  is  also  a  Morgan  product. 
The  wife  of  the  President  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia 
is  a  graduate  here,  and  the  President  himself  while 
on  a  visit  to  America  spoke  of  the  large  contribu- 


AN  EASTERN  COLLEGE  89 

tion  whicli  Morgan  College  and  similar  schools  in 
America  were  making  to  the  progress  of  his  coun- 
try. The  head  of  one  of  the  leading  hospitals  for 
colored  people  in  the  United  States  is  a  Morgan 
graduate,  and  other  ahimni  are  holding  important 
positions.  Morgan  College  has  had  a  long  and 
worthy  history;  her  future  is  full  of  promise.  The 
new  and  permanent  home  makes  it  possible  for 
Morgan,  with  proper  support,  to  become  a  dominat- 
ing factor  in  the  educational  life  of  the  colored 
people  of  the  East.  There  is  still  much  to  be  done, 
but  the  prospect  is  alluring.  The  school  is  already 
turning  away  hundreds  of  pupils  for  lack  of  room. 
Some  of  the  immediate  needs  are  more  dormitory 
space,  a  dairy  for  the  farm,  an  automobile  truck 
for  school  use,  and,  possibly  most  important  of  all, 
more  endowment.  The  future  achievements  of 
Moriian  Colleiie  are  in  the  hands  of  her  friends. 


Princess  Anne  Academy 

All  of  Morgan  College  is  not,  howeyer,  located 
in  the  city  of  Baltimore.  A  yery  important  branch 
of  the  school  is  Princess  Anne  Academy,  located 
at  Princess  Anne  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Mary- 
land. This  school  was  organized  by  Morgan  (_\j1- 
lege  in  the  year  188G.  At  present  about  two  hun- 
dred pupils  are  enrolled,  and,  for  lack  of  room, 
it  is  necessary  to  turn  away  more  pupils  than  are 
received.  In  connection  with  the  regular  elemen- 
tary and  secondary  work  of  the  school  special  em- 


90 


^■EGKO  EDUCATIO^^ 


pbasis  is  put  upon  iiidnstrial  education.  This  in- 
cludes agricultural  training,  blacksmitliing  and 
plumbing,  carpentry  and  wood  working,  printing, 
domestic  science,  domestic  art, 
poultry  craft,  and  home  garden- 
ing. These  departments  are  under 
the  direction  of  expert  men  and 
women  representing  training  at 
Hampton  Institute,  Cornell  Agri- 
cultural College,  the  University  of 
Michigan  Agricultural  College, 
and  other  schools.  The  school 
owns  a  large  farm  and  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  valuable  and 
useful  industrial  equipment. 
There  are  seven  j^rincipal  school 
buildings,  and  numerous  barns 
and  other  structures.  There  is 
also  an  orchard  of  360  trees.  The 
plan  provides  that  every  student  shall  spend  half 
a  day  at  work  and  half  a  day  in  the  school  room. 


PRI^XIPAL 
THOMAS   KIAH 


Connected  with  the  University  of  Maryland 

About  twenty  years  ago  Princess  Anne  Academy 
took  on  the  industrial  work  of  the  State  of  Mary- 
land for  colored  youth  and  it  still  maintains  its 
relationship  both  with  Morgan  College  and  with 
the  University  of  Maryland.  It  is  officially  desig- 
nated as  the  Eastern  Branch  of  the  University  of 
Maryland.  The  State  has  therefore  assisted  in  the 
building  up  of  the  school,  particularly  of  the  indus- 


AN  EASTERN  COLLEGE 


01 


trial  departments.  A  cnrrieiilum  has  already  been 
worked  out  with  a  view  to  making  Princess  Anne 
Academy  a  junior  college. 

The  Place  of  the  School 

The  students  at  Princess  Anne  come  mainly  from 
Maryland,  Mrginia,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  New 


PRINCESS  ANNE  ACADEMY 
Two  of  the  Buildings,  a  Recent  Graduating  Class,  and  Other 

Scenes 


92  NEGEO  EDUCATION 

Jersey,  and  New  York.  Most  of  them  are  paying 
a  part  or  all  of  their  own  expenses  and  in  the  sum- 
mer they  may  be  found  at  work  all  over  the  East. 
The  graduates  are  everywhere  giving  a  good  ac- 
count of  themselves,  for  the  training  given  here  is 
of  a  high  order  and  the  discipline  is  thorough. 
Principal  Thomas  Kiah  is  himself  a  graduate  here 
and  from  Morgan  with  special  additional  work  at 
Cornell  University,  and  at  Teachers  College,  Co- 
lumbia University.  All  of  the  teachers  and  work- 
ers here  are  colored.  A  summer  school  is  main- 
tained which  is  largely  attended  by  the  colored 
teachers  of  the  State,  and  extension  work  is  regu- 
larly carried  on. 

Princess  Anne  Academy  is  the  only  school  of  its 
sort  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  It  has  done  a  fine 
work  in  the  past  and  bids  fair  to  render  an  in- 
creasingly important  service  as  the  possibilitic^s 
of  the  field  are  developed. 


CHAPTER  VI 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE 


Wiley  College  and  Samuel  Huston  College 
In  the  northeastern  corner  of  the 
State  of  Texas  is  Marshall,  a  city  of 
about   fifteen   thousand   population. 
On  an  eminence  at  the  outskirts  of 
this    city,    and    within    convenient 
walking  distance  of  the  center  of  the 
town,  lies  the  campus  of  Wiley  Col- 
lege.    This  beautiful  spot  is  one  of 
which  the  Board  of  Education  for 
Negroes,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  and  the  local  school  authori- 
ties   are    justly    proud.      Beautiful 
shade    trees,    well-trimmed    hedges, 
neat  shrubbery,  well-kept  lawns,  and 
appropriate    buildings    set    off    the 
twenty-five  acres  of  school  property  which  are  de- 
voted to  school  uses  and  make  of  it  a  campus  to  be 
admired.    The  balance  of  the  sixty  acres  owned  by 
the  school  is  used  for  agricultural  purposes. 


prf:sident 

M.   W.   DOGAN 


Buildings 

The  main  building,  standing  in  the  center  of  the 
campus,  is  a  new  structure  made  possible  by  the 

93 


94  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Centenary.  It  is  modern  in  every  respect.  It  is 
used  for  classroom  and  office  purposes.  The  recita- 
tion rooms  and  laboratories  are  commodious,  clean, 
properly  lighted,  and  well  equipped.  A  moderate- 
sized  auditorium  is  also  inchuled.  Two  boys'  dor- 
mitories stand  nearby,  and  a  little  farther  away 
stands  the  large  dormitory  now  used,  temporarily, 
for  the  girls.  This  building  was  designed  for  the 
use  of  the  boys,  but  the  girls  have  taken  it  over  since 
a  fire  destroyed  their  dormitory.  At  the  other  end 
of  the  campus  is  the  beautiful  Carnegie  Library, 
for  this  is  one  of  the  places  where  Mr.  Carnegie 
saw  fit,  after  careful  investigation,  to  make  a  gen- 
erous gift  for  a  library  building.  Fortunately 
there  is  a  large  auditorium  on  the  second  floor  of 
this  library,  which  has  been  used  for  chapel  pur- 
poses since  a  fire  destroyed  the  old  chapel.  The 
president's  house  and  other  buildings,  including  a 
new  and  modern  refectory,  complete  those  on  the 
campus  itself.  Not  far  away  is  King  Home, 
the  Industrial  Home  conducted  by  the  Woman's 
Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church ;  and  in  the  neighborhood  are  comfort- 
able homes  of  Negroes,  many  of  whom  are  gradu- 
ates or  former  students  of  Wiley. 

History  of  the  School 

Wiley  College  was  founded  in  1S73  by  the 
Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  and  was  chartered  in  1882. 
The  site  first  secured  was  thought  to  be  too  far 
from  the  city,  so  the  present  location  was  chosen. 


IN  OUR  LARGi:ST  STATE  95 

Bishop  John  M.  Walden  aud  Dr.  R.  S.  Rust  were 
closely  identified  with  the  school  in  the  early  days. 
Dr.  Rnstj  with  the  assistance  of  the  local  board 
of  trustees,  selected  the  site  and  planned  the  build- 
ings. During"  the  early  days  of  the  school  white 
men  from  the  North  were  in  charge,  but  in  1894  the 
Rev.  I.  B.  Scott,  now  retired  Missionary  Bisliop 
from  Africa,  became  the  first  Negro  president  of 
the  school.  Two  years  later  he  was  elected  to  the 
editorship  of  the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate, 
and  Matthew  W.  Dogan,  another  colored  man, 
became  president  of  Wiley.  Under  President  Do- 
gan's  energetic  and  efficient  leadership  the  school 
has  not  only  grown  in  size  and  in  phj'sical  equip- 
ment, but  it  has  also  steadily  raised  the  standard 
of  its  work.  An  excellent  college  department  is 
maintained,  and  graduates  from  it  are  entitled  to 
teacher's  certificates  in  most  of  the  Southern  States 
without  examination. 

President  Dogan 

President  Dogan  was  born  in  Pontotoc,  Missis- 
sippi, in  the  year  1863.  When  he  was  six  years  old 
the  family  moved  to  Holly  Springs.  There  the  bo}^ 
entered  the  primary  grades  of  Shaw  University 
(now  Rust  College).  Going  to  school,  blacking- 
shoes,  and  otherwise  assisting  the  family,  he  grew 
up,  and  in  1886  graduated  from  Rust.  He  taught 
mathematics  at  his  Alma  Mater  until  1890,  when 
he  was  called  to  take  charge  of  the  Department  of 
Mathematics  at  Central  Tennessee  College.     There 


96  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

he  remained  until  181)0,  when  he  was  made  presi- 
dent of  Wiley.  In  -June,  1921,  President  Dogan 
completed  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  service  at 
Wiley,  and  there  is  much  to  show  for  his  labors. 
From  the  first  he  threw  himself  whole-heartedly 
into  his  work,  getting  out  among  the  people,  eating 
and  sleeping  in  their  homes,  meeting  the  young 
men  and  women,  and  securing  not  only  students 
but  also  the  loyal  support  of  the  colored  people  in 
his  teri-itory.  At  the  same  time  he  has  so  con- 
ducted himself  and  his  work  that  he  has  commanded 
the  respect  and  the  cooperation  of  his  white  neigh- 
bors. 

Departments 

In  addition  to  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences 
the  school  offers  a  pre-medical  course,  a  prepara- 
tory course,  a  normal  course,  a  business  course, 
and  instruction  in  various  musical  branches. 
Under  the  direction  of  the  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society  thorough  courses  in  domestic  sci- 
ence and  domestic  art  are  given.  This  work  is 
carried  on  in  the  new  college  building.  The  total 
enrollment  of  the  school  is  about  six  hundred,  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  of  these  are  enrolled 
in  the  College  Department.  This  department  is 
one  of  the  most  successful  to  be  found  in  any  of 
the  schools.  The  relatively  favorable  educational 
situation  in  Texas  partially  accounts  for  this.  The 
percentage  of  illiteracy  among  Negroes  in  Texas  is 
distressingly  high,  but,  compared  to  other  Southern 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE 


97 


States,  the  situation  seems  quite  good.  While  in 
some  Southern  States  there  are  almost  no  public 
high  schools  for  Negroes,  there  are  a  number  of 
such  schools  in  Texas  from  which  pupils  may  go 
on  to  college.  This  situation  is  a  distinct  asset  to 
Wiley  in  building  up  its  College  Department. 


WILEY   COLLEGE 

The  Main  Building,  a  Boys'  Dormitory,  tlie  Carnegie  Library, 

Entrance  to  Campus,  the  Refectory,  and  a  Group  of 

Students  Who  Served  in  the  World  War 


98  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Summer  School 

For  some  time  a  summer  normal  lias  been  main- 
tained at  Wiley.  Under  a  new  plan  now  in  opera- 
tion a  regular  summer  school  is  maintained  in  ad- 
dition to  the  summer  normal.  In  other  words,  the 
school  year  is  divided  into  four  quarters,  at  the 
beginning"  of  any  one  of  which  pupils  may  be 
regularly  enrolled.  The  school  plant  thus  comes 
into  almost  continuous  operation  the  year  around, 
and  during  that  portion  of  the  summer  when  the 
nornml  school,  held  in  cooperation  with  the  j^ublic- 
school  authorities,  is  in  session,  it  accommodates 
two  schools.  Each  spring  there  is  also  held  at 
Wiley  a  training  school  for  Negro  rural  pastors, 
conducted  under  the  auspices  of  the  Department  of 
Rural  Work  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension  of  the  Methodist  Episcoj)al 
Church.  Thus  the  influence  of  the  school  is  ex- 
tended, and  the  physical  equipment  put  to  the  most 
effective  use. 

The  Faculty 

The  school  has  a  faculty  of  more  than  twenty 
teachers  representing  training  at  Rust  College, 
Wiley  College,  Harvard  University,  Fisk  Uni- 
versit}^  the  University  of  Chicago,  Howard  Uni- 
versity, Walden  College,  the  University  of  Illi- 
nois, the  University  of  Iowa,  Virginia  Union 
University,  the  Student  University  of  Paris,  the 
Armstrong  Commercial  School,  Chicago  Music 
School,  Oberlin  Conservatory  of  Music,  and  Wilber- 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE  U9 

force  University.    All  of  the  members  of  the  faculty 
are  colored.     Five 
to  college  teachini''. 


are  colored.     Five  of  them  give  their  entire  time 


Students  and  Student  Activities 

The  students  at  Wiley  come  chiefly  from  Texas, 
Louisiana,  Oklahoma,  and  Arkansas,  although  they 
come  from  as  far  West  as  Arizona  and  California 
and  also  from  various  Eastern  States.  They  come 
from  a  great  variety  of  homes,  but  many  come  from 
the  little  corn  and  cotton  farms  of  Texas.  Alto- 
gether they  are  an  alert  lot  of  young  Americans. 
They  maintain  numerous  athletic  organizations 
wMch  make  good  use  of  the  tine  athletic  ground 
on  the  campus,  and  they  have  various  student  so- 
cieties, including  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A., 
the  Epworth  League,  the  Mason  Literary  Societ}^ 
Scott's  Literary  Society,  the  Francis  Harper  Liter- 
ary Society,  the  Reader's  Club,  the  Friends  of 
Africa,  the  University  Debating  Club,  the  Phi  Beta 
Sigma  Fraternity,  the  Theta  Gamma  Epsilon  So- 
rority, and  other  organizations. 

Many  of  the  pupils  are  working  their  way 
through  school.  Some  work  in  hotels  and  res- 
taurants, some  in  banks  or  stores,  some  in  private 
families.  During  the  summer  vacation  they  go 
back  to  the  farm;  engage  in  construction  work; 
teach  school ;  go  North ;  or  engage  in  other  occu- 
pations. In  the  Pullman  service  they  may  be  found 
as  far  West  as  the  Pacific  Coast. 


100  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Alumni 

The  alumni  of  Wiley  are  doing  good  work  in  the 
world.  They  are  filling  a  great  variety  of  positions, 
but  there  are  many  teachers,  high  school  principals, 
lawyers,  doctors,  and  dentists.  Dr.  Emmett  J. 
Scott,  for  many  years  associated  with  Booker  T. 
Washington  at  Tuskegee,  and  now  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  Howard  University,  was  educated  at 
Wiley;  also  Professor  Willis  J.  King  of  Gammon 
Theological  Seminary.  The  pupils  at  Wiley  have 
manifested  a  particular  interest  in  medicine  and 
dentistry;  many  have  gone  on  from  here  to  stud}' 
at  ]\[eharry  and  some  to  Gammon  Theological  Semi- 
nary. 

Needs 

Wiley  College  has  a  record  of  achievement 
of  which  to  be  proud,  but  its  very  success  has 
.created  new  demands.  There  are  some  immediate 
needs,  such  as  a  girls'  dormitory,  which  must  be 
supplied,  but  the  outstanding  need  of  the  hour  is 
for  a  large  and  substantial  endowment.  So  im- 
portant a  school  can  hardly  continue  to  hold  its 
place  and  do  its  work  in  the  world  unless  its  fu- 
ture is  assured  by  a  generous  permanent  endow- 
ment. Wiley  College  has  proved  her  right  to 
live,  and  she  must  now  be  given  a  chance  to  live 
adequately.  It  would  not  be  easy  to  find  an  insti- 
tution more  worthy  or  better  prepared  to  make 
wise  use  of  a  large  permanent  investment  than 
Wiley  College. 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE 


101 


Samuel   Huston   College 

The  State  of  Texas  is  larger 
than  all  the  Atlantic  States  from 
Maine  to  Virginia  inclusive.  In- 
cluded in  its  population  are  two 
thirds  of  a  million  colored  people. 
It  is  not  surprising  that,  under 
these  circumstances,  the  Board  of 
Education  for  Negroes  has  a  sec- 
ond school  in  the  State.  Located 
at  Austin,  only  a  few  blocks  from 
the  imposing  State  Capitol  build- 
ing, stands  Samuel  Huston  Col- 
lege. It  has  three  principal  school 
buildings  in  addition  to  the  beau- 
tiful Eliza  Dee  Home,  operated  by 
the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  in  connec- 
tion with  the  school. 


PRESIDENT 
J.    B.    RANDOLPH 


History  of  the  School 

For  nearly  thirty  years  the  colored  people  of 
Texas  struggled  to  establish  this  school.  They  got 
the  basement  of  one  building  up;  then  the  money 
gave  out,  and  for  sixteen  years  the  basement  stood 
in  the  face  of  the  beating  rains  unused.  In  1898 
the  building  was  inclosed,  but  left  unfinished  in- 
side. Two  years  later  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society 
sent  Dr.  R.  S.  Lovinggood  to  open  the  school. 
When  he  arrived  he  found  one  floor  finished  and 
only  four  rooms  available  for  use.    Birds  nested  in 


102  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

the  rafters,  and  pigs  and  goats  slept  in  the  base- 
ment. There  was  no  kitchen,  no  dining  hall,  no 
dishes,  no  furniture.  The  first  day  eighty-three 
puj)ils  enrolled  and  forty-one  of  them  came  to 
board. 

President  Loyinggood  said  of  that  experience : 
"The  students  sat  on  trunks  while  I  gave  them  a 
lecture  and  went  out  to  beg  chairs,  dishes,  beds, 
etc.  We  called  upon  the  neighbors,  both  white  and 
black ;  all  res2:>onded  liberally.  Our  first  meal  was 
a  jug  of  molasses  and  fourteen  loayes  of  bread.'' 

A  "chair"  social  was  giyen,  at  which  the  ticket  of 
admission  was  a  chair.  Thirty-seyen  chairs  were 
secured  that  way.  Then  followed  a  "sheet  and  pil- 
low-case" entertainment;  a  "dish"  social;  a  "laun- 
dry-equipment" fair,  and  similar  events.  Tem- 
porary rooms  for  dining  hall  and  kitchen  were 
prepared.  President  Loyinggood,  his  wife,  and 
little  boy  lived  in  one  room ;  eight  girls  occupied 
one  room ;  one  teacher  and  twenty  boys  stayed  in 
four  rooms. 

Devoti(3n  of  the  Colored  People 

The  devotion  of  the  colored  people  to  the  school 
was  most  touching  from  the  very  first.  For  many 
years  washerwomen  came  Saturday  after  Saturday 
with  their  small  earnings  tied  in  a  handkerchief 
to  divide  with  the  school.  After  sharing  their  pos- 
sessions they  would  kneel  down  with  the  president, 
pray  for  the  school,  and  pass  on.  Day  laborers 
brought   their   donations   in   weekly   installments. 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE 


103 


In  this  way  one  colored  laborer  gave  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  to  the  school. 

"Treat  Others  Better  Than  They  Treat  You" 

There  was  considerable  opposition  on  the  part  of 
certain  white  people  to  the  school,  and  some  hard 
feeling-  and  some  definite  persecution  grew  out  of 


SAMUEL  HUSTON  COLLEGE  BASEBALL  TEAM 


that  fact.  A  white  elementary  school  was  not  far 
away,  and  the  children  in  passing  to  and  from  it 
used  to  make  things  rather  uncomfortable  for  the 
students  of  Samuel  Huston. 

In  the  midst  of  these  trying  times  a  faculty  meet- 
ing was  held,  and  faculty  and  students  were  urged 
to  speak  no  unkind  w^ord  and  to  refrain  from  any 


104  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

rash  act.  In  this  crisis  the  present  motto  of  the 
school  was  adopted  :  "Strive  ahvays  to  treat  others 
better  than  they  treat  you."  How  wise  this  policy 
proved  to  be  is  perhaps  demonstrated  by  the  fact 
that,  when  President  Lovinggood  died  sixteen  years 
later,  the  Mayor  of  Austin  and  the  City  Council 
attended  the  funeral  in  a  body  and  the  Mayor 
si)oke. 

President  E.  S.  Lovinggood 

The  story  of  Samuel  Huston  College  can  never  be 
told  apart  from  that  of  President  Lovinggood.  He 
was  born  in  South  Carolina,  in  1864.  He  used  to 
speak  of  himself  as  a  "mountain  black."  He 
learned  his  alphabet  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  from 
a  blue-backed  speller  in  the  Sunday  school  con- 
ducted in  a  little  log  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 
All  his  college  preparatory  work  was  done  in  this 
Sunday  school.  In  1881  he  entered  the  elementary 
department  of  Clark  University.  He  graduated 
from  the  classical  course  of  Clark  in  1800.  For 
two  years  he  published  a  weekly  newspaper  in  xit- 
lanta.  He  sold  his  interest  in  the  paper,  and  be- 
came principal  of  a  city  school  in  Birmingham.  In 
1895  he  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  Greek  and  Latin 
at  Wiley  L^niversity.  There  he  stayed  until  he 
came  to  open  Samuel  Huston  College  in  1!)00. 
Weakened  in  body,  he  was  obliged  to  give  the  strict- 
est attention  to  diet,  sleep,  and  special  exercises.  ■ 
In  spite  of  this  limitation  he  was  able  to  do  a 
prodigious  amount  of  work  uj)  until  the  time  of  his 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE  105 

death  in  1916,  at  the  age  of  fifty-three.     How  well 

he  lived  is  partly  expressed  in  the  words  which  were 

spoken  of  him  at  the  time  of  his  death  : 

He  was  kiud.  He  was  good.  He  was  fatherly.  So 
many  things  haye  been  left  to  remind  us  of  him.  He 
was  a  dreamer  who  dreamed  dreams,  and  worked  them 
out  for  the  benefit  of  others.  His  joy  was  in  seeing 
others'  liyes  unfold.  To  him  sacrifice  was  a  pleasure. 
He  liyed  for  others;  he  died  for  others.  Greater  loye 
hath  no  man  than  this.  In  him  was  loye  and  his  loye 
was  a  cloak  to  all  humanity.  He  loyed  mankind — but 
he  had  a  double  loye  for  the  black  boys  and  girls  of 
his  race. 

Colonel  E.  M.  House,  who  has  perhaps  never 
been  accused  of  extravagant  language,  said  of  him : 
''He  is  one  of  the  greatest  educators  of  his  race.'' 

President  Lovinggood  was  not  given  to  complain- 
ing of  the  limitations  placed  upon  his  race,  but 
on  one  occasion  at  least  he  said : 

When  I  went  away  to  school  I  was  taught  that  God 
is  our  Father.  I  was  taught  to  pray,  "Our  Father,  who 
art  in  heayen."  I  was  taught  that  God  is  no  re- 
specter of  persons,  that  he  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations.  I  was  taught  that  our  country  guaranteed  to 
eyery  one  the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  i^ursuit  of 
happiness.  I  learned  the  famous  words,  "Giye  me  lib- 
erty or  giye  me  death." 

Now  I  obey  the  laws ;  I  love  my  neighbors ;  I  pay 
my  taxes;  I  preach  the  gospel  of  good  will  and  useful- 
ness; I  turn  the  other  cheek.  I  begged  twice  to  be 
permitted  to  join  the  army.    I  would  die  for  Old  Glory. 

But  I  find  with  that  noble  Southern  white  man,  ex- 
Congressman  W.  H.  Fleming,  that  "Taxation  without 
representation  is  unjust — excej)t  as  to  Negroes ;  equal 
rights  to  all  and  special  priyileges  to  none  is  a  good 
doctrine — except  as  to  Negroes;  all  men  are  created 


106  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

free  and  equal — except  as  to  Negroes ;  this  is  a  govern- 
ment of  the  people  and  by  the  people — except  as  to 
Negroes.'' 

I  am  taxed,  but  I  cannot  vote. 

I  was  in  a  Northern  city,  a  stranger  and  hungry. 
I  had  money.  There  was  an  abundance  of  food,  but  I 
was  compelled  to  feast  on  a  box  of  crackers  and  a  piece 
of  cheese.  I  did  not  ask  to  eat  with  white  people,  but 
I  did  ask  to  eat. 

I  was  traveling,  I  got  off  at  a  station  almost  starved. 
I  begged  a  restaurant-keejier  to  put  a  lunch  in  a  sack 
and  to  sell  it  to  me  out  ot  the  window.  He  refused. 
I  w^as  compelled  to  ride  another  hundred  miles  before 
I  could  get  a  sandwich. 

And  then  he  added,  "It  is  true  that  I  feel  a  kind 
of  soul  aristocracy,  w^hich  is  unruffled  by  many  dis- 
criminations and  annoyances." 

E.    T.    BURROWES 

Samuel  Huston  College  received  its  name  from 
an  Iowa  farmer  w  ho  made  a  generous  contribution 
to  the  school  in  the  early  days.  Another  man,  who 
shared  liberally  in  the  development  of  the  school, 
was  E.  T.  Burrow^es  of  Maine.  He  became  inter- 
ested in  the  project  almost  by  chance  through  a 
paper  placed  in  his  hand  by  President  E.  O.  Thayer 
of  Clark  University  and  a  former  teacher  of  Dr. 
Loving-good.  Without  visiting  the  school  Mr.  Bur- 
row^es  gave  five  thousand  dollars  toward  the  erec- 
tion of  the  present  main  building,  w^hich  bears  his 
name.  Later  this  initial  gift  w^as  very  largely  in- 
creased. Opportunity  finally  came  for  him  to  visit 
the  school,  and  he  was  moved  to  tears  as  he  saw  the 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE 


107 


pupils  engaged  in  the  activities  of  tlie  school  life. 

When  he  stood  before  the  group  in  the  chapel,  he 

again  broke  down  and  could  hardly   speak.     He 

wrote  later : 

After   iiiakiug  an   investment   in   this   enterprise,    I 
made  a  trip  to  Austin  to  inspect  personally  the  work. 


BURROWES   HALL,    SAMUEL   HUSTON   COLLEGE 


I  was  gratified  beyond  all  expectation  in  the  actual 
work  done  at  this  school.  I  know  of  no  place  where 
an  investment  in  educational  work  has  brought  such 
large  and  immediate  returns. 

The  Work  of  the  School 

The  emphasis  of  the  school  has  been  upon  the 
providing  of  college,  college-preparatory,  indus- 
trial, musical,  and  normal  courses.     Possibly  the 


108 


XEGRO  EDUCATION 


largest  present  single  task  of  the  school  is  that  of 
supplying  adequately  trained  teachers  for  the  many 
Xegro  schools  in  its  vicinity  Avhich  are  in  need  of 
teachers.  Through  the  agency  of  the  Eliza  Dee 
Home  a  thorough  training  is  provided  for  the  girls 
in  domestic  science  and  domestic  art.     The  school 


ELIZA   DEE   HOME,   WOMAN'S    HOME   MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY 


has  been  crowded  from  the  first  and  hundreds  have 
been  turned  away  for  lack  of  room.  The  highest  en- 
rollment reached  thus  far  has  been  523.  Recently  a 
small  farm  has  been  purchased  by  the  students  and 
faculty  for  the  use  of  the  school.  It  is  hoped  to 
utilize  this  for  purposes  of  agricultural  training, 
and  also  as  a  food-ijroducing  asset  for  the  school. 


IN  OUR  LARGEST  STATE  109 

The  Present  President 

J.  B.  Randolph,  the  present  president  of  Samuel 
Huston  College,  is  himself  a  product  of  the  schools 
of  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes.  He  was 
born  in  Mississippi  in  1875.  He  moved  to  New 
Orleans,  and  graduated  from  New  Orleans  Col- 
lege in  1902,  having  taught  school  several  years 
previous  to  that  time.  He  assisted  in  connection 
with  the  Young  People's  Congress  held  at  Atlanta 
in  1902,  and  in  the  fall  of  that  year  went  to  Wiley, 
where,  as  teacher  at  various  times  of  Greek,  Latin, 
French,  Sociology,  and  Education,  and  as  Dean  of 
the  College,  he  labored  most  effectively  with  Dr. 
Dogan  in  the  building  up  of  the  school.  In  1917 
he  was  placed  in  charge  of  Haven  Institute  at 
Meridian,  Mississippi.  In  June,  1920,  he  was 
transferred  to  Samuel  Huston  College.  His  person- 
ality, training,  and  practical  experience  should  be 
worth  much  to  the  school. 


CHAPTER  VII 


AN  IMPORTANT  SCHOOL  IN  A  GREAT  CITY 


New  Orleans  College 

Approximately  four  hundred 
out  of  every  one  thousand  persons 
in  the  State  of  Louisiana  are  col- 
ored, and  of  the  colored  people  in 
the  State  484  out  of  every  thou- 
sand are  reported  as  illiterate. 
Such  a  statement  hardly  needs 
elaboration.  Illuminated  by  even 
a  little  imai>iuation  it  reveals  a 
situation  which  is  inimical  to 
progress  and  to  our  national  wel- 
fare in  general.  More  than  one 
hundred  thousand  of  the  nearly 
three  quarters  of  a  million  Ne- 
groes in  the  State  of  Louisiana 
are  to  be  found  in  New  Orleans,  the  largest  city  of 
the  State,  and  in  fact  the  largest  city  of  the  entire 
South.  In  the  midst  of  this  large  field  with  its 
pressing  needs  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes, 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  at  work. 

Beginning  of  the  Work 
In  the  year  18G5  the  Louisiana  Conference  was 

110 


PKESIDENT 
C.    M.    MELDEN 


AN  IMPORTANT  SCHOOL  111 

organized.  The  same  year,  in  order  to  ijrepare 
Negro  young  men  for  tlie  ministry,  tlie  Thompson 
Bible  Institute  was  established  on  Bayou  Teche, 
Saint  Mary's  Parish.  This  school  was  later  discon- 
tinued. In  New  Orleans  Dr.  John  P.  Newman, 
afterward  Bishop  Newman,  founded  a  Normal 
School.  The  work  grew  for  several  years.  In  1873 
Dr.  Joseph  C.  Hartzell,  later  Bishop  Hartzell, 
bought  a  block  and  a  half  of  land  on  which  stood 
an  old  Southern  mansion  on  Saint  Charles  Avenue, 
and  secured  a  charter  for  ^'New  Orleans  Univer- 
sity." To  this  location  the  Normal  School  was 
moved,  and  the  development  of  the  present  insti- 
tution began. 

The  first  catalogue  of  the  school  listed  a  Com- 
mercial Department,  a  Classical  Department,  a 
Scientific  Department,  a  Preparatory  Department, 
a  Normal  Department,  a  Biblical  Department,  a 
Medical  Department,  and  a  Law  Department.  All 
of  these  departments,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  the  Law  Department,  were  or  became  actual 
realities,  so  that  the  school  was  in  a  real  sense 
a  university.  Later  the  Biblical  Department,  so 
far  as  it  represented  actual  training  for  the  min- 
istry, was  discontinued  in  favor  of  Gammon  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  and  the  Medical  Department 
(Flint  Medical  College)  was  transferred  to  Me- 
harry  Medical  College. 

Gilbert  Academy 
For  many  years  Gilbert  Academy  and  Agricul- 


112  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

tiiral  College,  located  at  Baldwin,  Louisiana,  was 
associated  with  Xew  Orleans  College,  serving 
both  as  a  preparatory  school  and  feeder  to  the 
college  and  as  an  agricultural  and  industrial 
branch  of  it.  The  story  of  the  institution  is  unique. 
It  grew  out  of  a  movement  begun  before  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War  to  care  for  and  educate  the 
orphans  of  colored  Union  soldiers.  General  N.  P. 
Banks  really  initiated  the  movement  in  18G3  by 
providing  for  the  gathering  together  of  these  ne- 
glected children  in  the  city  of  Xew  Orleans.  Be- 
fore that  time  they  had  often  become  scattered 
and  lost,  and  some  of  them  had  been  found  dead 
by  the  roadside,  famished  while  their  mothers 
looked  for  work.  Soon  after  this  work  was  begun 
a  Frenchman  who  chanced  to  be  in  Xew  Orleans 
visited  the  Marine  Hospital  in  which  the  children 
were  established.  His  heart  was  touched,  and  he 
offered  to  give  ten  thousand  dollars  to  purchase  a 
farm  home  for  the  orphans  on  condition  that  twenty 
thousand  dollars  more  should  ])e  raised  to  supple- 
ment his  gift.  Dr.  John  P.  Xewman,  later  Bishop 
Xewman,  took  an  active  part  in  securing  the  needed 
money,  and  a  large  sugar  plantation  one  hundred 
and  four  miles  west  of  Xew  Orleans,  which  had 
witnessed  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  generations  of 
masters  and  slaves  and  which  was  now  being  sold 
by  the  sheriff,  was  purchased  and  became  the 
Orphans"  Home.  The  plan  was  to  make  the  insti- 
tution self-sui)porting  from  the  proceeds  of  the 
sugar   industry.      However,    the   premature   with- 


AN  IMPORTANT  SCHOOL  113 

drawal  of  public  funds  from  the  support  of  the 
institution,  an  explosion  which  wrecl^ed  the  sugar 
house,  and  other  contributory  causes  placed  the 
institution  in  jeopardy,  and  in  the  year  1874  it 
became  necessary  to  place  a  considerable  number 
of  the  orphans  in  private  homes  for  care. 

At  this  juncture  it  chanced  that  Mrs.  W.  D. 
Godman  of  Berea,  Ohio,  was  stopping  at  the  in- 
stitution. During  her  stay  she  had  occasion  to 
employ  a  colored  laundress.  One  evening  when  this 
colored  woman  returned  with  the  clothes  she 
brought  also  a  carefidly  wrapped  bundle.  She 
seemed  to  have  something  which  she  very  much 
wanted  to  say,  and  at  last  she  unwrapped  her  bun- 
dle to  reveal  a  large  old  Bible  and  hesitatingly 
pleaded,  "Please,  would  you  learn  me  just  one  verse 
from  God's  word?"  The  appeal  was  too  direct  to 
be  resisted  and  before  the  old  woman  left  that  night 
she  had  the  joy  of  reading  a  verse  from  the  New 
Testament.  This  led  as  the  days  passed  to  other 
verses.  Other  Negro  women  came,  and  night  after 
night  they  sat  in  an  old  building,  with  a  dim  light 
and  with  a  boy  stationed  close  at  hand  to  kill  any 
approaching  snakes,  and  labored  that  they  might 
learn  to  read.  This  was  not  the  beginning  of  edu- 
cational work  at  the  orphanage,  for  the  Freedmen's 
Aid  Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  had 
from  the  first  provided  teachers  for  the  orphans. 
It  was,  however,  the  beginning  of  an  interest  on  the 
part  of  Mrs.  Godman  and  of  her  husband,  who  was 
then  president   of  Baldwin   University   in   Berea, 


114  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Ohio,  which  brought  them  permanently  to  the 
Southland  and  led  them  to  give  many  years  of  de- 
voted and  effective  service  to  the  colored  people  of 
Louisiana.  Under  their  leadership  La  Teche  Semi- 
nary was  opened  on  the  plantation  in  April,  1875. 
The  name  of  the  school  was  later  changed  to  Gilbert 
Seminary  in  honor  of  the  Hon.  W.  L.  Gilbert  of 
Winsted,  Connecticut,  who  gave  generously  to  the 
school.  Still  later  Gilbert  Seminary  became  Gil- 
bert Acadeni}'  and  Agricultural  College.  Through- 
out the  years  the  school  has  retained  its  relations 
with  New  Orleans  College,  and  the  school  has 
now  been  moved  to  New  Orleans  and  combined  with 
the  college.  The  Woman's  Home  Missionary 
Society  has  taken  charge  of  the  orphanage  work 
which  was  so  long  carried  on  and  will  continue  this 
work  on  the  Baldwin  site. 

A  New  Name 

New  Orleans  College  has  throughout  the  years 
endeavored  to  adapt  its  program  to  changing 
conditions.  One  of  the  circumstances  of  this  chang- 
ing situation  has  been  the  tendency  to  centralize 
the  work  of  professional  training.  In  the  working- 
out  of  the  general  scheme  it  appeared  that  the  large 
contribution  which  New  Orleans  College  could 
make  was  in  the  field  of  training  teachers.  One  of 
the  crying  needs  of  the  entire  area  is  for  teachers, 
and  it  was  felt  that  the  largest  service  could  be 
rendered  by  producing  here  thoroughly  trained 
young  men  and  women  to  go  out  to  teach  the  people 


AN  IMPORTANT  SCHOOL 


115 


of  their  own  race.  In  accoi-dunce  with  this  phm 
the  normal  and  educational  courses  have  been  re- 
vised and  strenj^thened.  The  name  of  the  school 
has  been  changed  to  New  Orleans  College  and  Gil- 
bert Academy.  Under  the  new  plan,  special  em- 
phasis will  be  put  upon  normal  training.     In  ad- 


NEW  ORLEANS  COLLEGE 


dition  to  this  main  emphasis  of  the  school  there  are 
also  offered  a  regular  college  course,  junior  college 
course,  college  preparatory  course,  a  pre-medical 
course,  a  domestic  science  course,  and  special  work 
in  domestic  art,  music,  elocution  and  commercial 
subjects.  Instruction  is  also  given  in  grades  five 
to  eight,  and  this  work  may  be  extended  to  include 
all  of  the  elementary  grades  in  order  to  provide  an 


IIG  XEGRO  EDUCATION' 

adequate  practice  school  for  the  Xormal  Depart- 
ment. 

Peck  School  of  Domestic  Science  and  Art 

Connected  with  New  Orleans  College,  but  under 
the  direct  supervision  of  the  Woman's  Home  Mis- 
sionary Society,  is  the  Peck  School  of  Domestic 
Science  and  Art.  This  work  was  really  begun 
indei)endeutly  by  Mrs.  Hartzell,  wife  of  Bishop 
Joseph  C.  Hartzell.  Through  her  influence  a 
mission  school  for  girls  was  established  in  1887, 
and  an  Industrial  Home  was  built  in  1889  and 
named  in  honor  of  Bishop  Jesse  T.  Peck.  x4.fter 
eight  years  of  most  effective  service  the  building- 
burned,  but  the  school  was  maintained  in  connec- 
tion with  the  college.  In  1912  the  spacious  and 
beautiful  new  building  which  now  houses  the  Home 
was  completed.  It  stands  adjoining  the  college 
campus,  and  it  makes  a  most  important  contribu- 
tion to  the  life  of  the  school.  A  considerable  num- 
ber of  girls  live  at  the  Home  and  get  the  experience 
and  training  in  home-making  which  only  such  resi- 
dence can  give.  All  of  the  girls,  however,  receive 
the  instruction  and  training  in  cooking  and  sewing 
which  is  offered  at  the  Home  and  carried  on  in  its 
commodious  and  well-equipped  work  rooms  and 
class  rooms.  Many  hundreds  of  garments  are  pro- 
duced here.  Thus  all  of  the  girls  get  a  practical 
training,  according  to  a  graded  and  well  regulated 
course  in  cooking  and  sewing,  and  those  who  are 
minded  to  specialize  in  one  or  both  of  these  branches 


AN  IMPORTANT  SCHOOL  117 

are  given  the  opportunity  to  do  so  and  are  granted 
diplomas  upon  the  snceesst'ul  completion  of  their 
training.     About  fifty  girls  live  in  the  Home. 

Students 

More  than  five  hundred  students  are  enrolled  in 
the  various  departments  of  New  Orleans  College. 
Most  of  the  boarding  students,  both  in  the  college 
dormitories  and  in  Peck  Home,  are  from  outside 
of  the  city  of  New  Orleans.  This  group  is  supple- 
mented by  a  substantial  number  of  day  pupils  from 
the  city  itself.  Most  of  the  girls  come  from  fairly 
comfortable  homes,  and  their  way  is  j)aid  by  par- 
ents or  by  some  relative.  Many  of  the  boys,  how- 
ever, are  obliged  to  work  their  way  through.  They 
serve  as  butlers,  house  boys,  yard  boys,  chauffeurs, 
and  in  various  other  capacities  largely  in  private 
homes  of  white  people  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans. 
A  regular  schedule  is  arranged  for  these  boys  and 
they  work  al)Out  an  hour  in  the  morning  before 
condng  to  school  and  about  two  hours  at  night 
after  school.  The  hotels  and  business  places  of 
New  Orleans  are  five  miles  away  down  in  the  city, 
so  that  it  is  not  feasible  for  the  students  to  work  in 
them.  In  the  dormitory  there  is  a  regular  evening 
stud}'  hour,  after  which  the  pupils  retire  at  ten 
o'clock. 

An  athletic  ground  is  provided  on  the  campus, 
and  wholesome  attention  is  given  to  athletic  train- 
ing.    The  football  team  from  the  school  held  the 


lis 


NEGRO  EDUCATIONS 


State  chamiDiousbii)  for  Xegro  teams  in  Louisiana 
in  1920. 

The  Present  Location 

The  school  is  now  located  on  a  campus  of  about 
three  acres,  occupying  two  and  a  quarter  city  blocks 


NEW  ORLEANS  COLLEGE  FOOTBALL   TEAM,   STATE 
CHAMPIONS   1920 


out  on  Saint  Charles  Avenue,  one  of  the  very  finest 
residence  streets  of  the  city.  A  few  blocks  aAvay 
stands  Tulane  University,  one  of  the  leading  South- 
ern universities  for  white  people.  As  a  matter  of 
fact  there  is  no  single  residence  quarter  for  Negroes 
in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  and  they  may  be  found 
distributed  widely  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  city. 


AN  IMrORTANT  SCHOOL  110 

The  wide  boulevard  of  Saint  Charles  Avenue,  with 
its  magnificent  shade  trees  and  its  fine  residences, 
provides  a  beantifnl  setting  for  the  school.  The 
chief  buildings  are  the  main  school  building,  the 
president's  home,  and  Peck  Home.  There  is  also 
a  wooden  building  devoted  to  the  use  of  the  grade 
school.  The  present  campus  formed  part  of  an  old 
Southern  plantation  which  was  said  to  have  been 
devoted  largely  to  the  raising  of  oranges.  The 
president's  house  is  the  old  plantation  home,  prob- 
ably nearly  one  hundred  years  old. 

An  Incident 

When  ground  was  broken  for  the  new  college 
building  on  Saint  Charles  Avenue,  one  of  the  speak- 
ers was  the  Rev.  Emperor  William,  a  Negro  who 
had  been  born  a  slave  in  182G.  He  was  a  master 
mason,  and  in  the  year  1858  he  secured  his  own 
freedom.  He  offered  two  thousand  dollars  in  gold 
for  the  freedom  of  his  wife,  who  was  also  a  slave, 
but  her  owners  refused  to  sell  her.  Not  long  after 
General  Butler  captured  New  Orleans  and  Em- 
peror William  got  his  wife  for  nothing.  He  then 
took  his  money  and  purchased  a  home.  He  was  one 
of  the  twelve  who  shared  in  the  reorganization  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  New  Orleans 
in  18GG.  On  the  occasion  of  the  breaking  of  ground 
for  the  new  college  building  he  was  deeply  stirred, 
and  when  opportunity  came  for  him  to  speak  he 
lifted  his  hands  to  heaven  and  said  among  other 
things : 


120  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

"I  wonder  if  this  is  the  world  I  was  born  in  I 
For  twenty  years  I  was  a  slave  on  these  streets.  It 
was  a  j)enitentiary  offense  to  educate  a  Negro.  I 
have  seen  my  fellow  servants  whipped  for  trying 
to  learn ;  but,  to-day,  here  I  am  on  this  great  avenue 
in  this  great  city  with  the  bishops  and  elders  and 
peojDle  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  speaking 
at  the  breaking  of  ground  where  a  building  is  to  be 
erected  for  the  education  of  my  people.  I  wonder 
if  this  is  the  world  I  was  born  in !'' 

The  Alumni 

Few  schools  of  similar  sort  have  more  to  show  for 
their  efforts  than  has  this  school  at  New  Orleans. 
Some  of  the  most  useful  workers  of  the  church  have 
been  trained  in  it.  Bishop  Alexander  P.  Camphor 
was  a  graduate  of  this  school ;  and,  after  complet- 
ing his  own  course,  he  served  for  a  number  of  years 
as  a  teacher  in  his  Alma  Mater.  Mrs.  Camphor  was 
also  trained  here,  and  it  was  here  that  she  met  her 
future  husband.  Professor  J.  W.  E.  Bowen  of  Gam- 
mon Theological  Seminary  is  a  graduate  here;  also 
M.  S.  Davage,  president  of  Rust  College,  and  J.  B. 
Randolph,  president  of  Samuel  Huston  College. 
M.  C.  B.  Mason,  formerly  secretary  of  the  Freed- 
men's  Aid  Society,  was  educated  here.  David 
Jones,  the  brother  of  Bishop  Robert  E.  Jones,  and 
now  general  secretary  of  the  Negro  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in 
Saint  Louis,  one  of  the  leading  Negro  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
organizations  of  the  country,  attended  school  here 
and  later  at  Weslevan  Universitv.     And  the  list 


AN  IMPORTANT  SCHOOL  121 

might  be  very  greatly  extended.  The  graduates 
of  New  Orleans  have  "made  good,"  and  the  strong- 
religious  emphasis  in  the  work  of  the  school  has 
sent  them  ont  to  lead  lives  of  unselfish  service. 

Built  on  the  foundations  of  the  past.  New  Orleans 
College  faces  tremendous  needs.  There  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  her  day  of  usefulness  is  only 
well  begun. 

For  some  years  the  school  has  been  under  the 
experienced  leadership  of  the  Rev.  Charles  M.  Mel- 
den,  Ph.D.,  who,  raised  in  the  North,  has  devoted 
much  of  his  life  to  the  service  of  the  Negro  in  the 
South.  He  was  for  a  number  of  years  the  very 
efficient  president  of  Clark  University.  He  is 
author  of  a  book  on  the  American  Negro  entitled 
"From  Slave  to  Citizen.'' 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  HEAET  OF  THE  "BLACK  BELT' 


Rust  College,   Haven  Institute,   and  Central  Alabama 
Institute 

Judged  from  the  standpoint  of 
comi^lexion,  the  State  of  Missis- 
sippi represents  the  blackest  part 
of  the  so-called  Southern  "black 
belt/'  More  than  fifty-two  per 
cent  of  the  people  of  the  State 
are  colored,  making-  a  total  of 
nearly  a  million  Negroes  in  the 
State.  In  1010  the  rate  of  illit- 
eracy among  the  Negroes  of  Mis- 
sissippi over  ten  years  of  age  was 
o56  to  every  thousand.  Most  of 
these  people  live  in  the  country, 
for  there  are  few  cities  in  the 
State.  The  largest  place  in  the 
State  has  a  i^opulation  of  only  23,000.  The  State 
is  almost  entirely  flat,  the  highest  point  rising  to 
an  altitude  of  only  a  little  more  than  seven  hundred 
feet.  The  rural  public  schools  of  the  State  are 
conspicuous  either  for  their  absence  or  for  the  fact 
of  their  impoverished  condition  and  the  brevity  of 
their  sessions.  Mississippi  probably  spends  less  per 
capita  for  the  education  of  its  white  children  than 

122 


PRESIDENT 
M.    S.   DAVAGE 


HEART  OP^  THE  "BLACK  BELT"   123 

any  other  State  in  the  Union,  yet  even  that  meager 
amount  represents  a  per-capita  expenditure  five 
and  one  half  times  greater  than  that  spent  for  the 
education  of  its  Negro  children. 

Rust  College 

In  the  northeastern  part  of  the  State,  on  what  is 
said  to  be  the  highest  point  of  land  in  the  State, 
stands  Rust  College.  The  campus  is  an  unusually 
attractive  one,  set  off  by  broad  expanses  of  green, 
beautiful  shade  trees,  well  laid  out  drives,  and  a 
number  of  college  buildings,  one  central  structure, 
two  other  buildings  used  for  purposes  of  instruc- 
tion, Rust  Home,  a  model  home  for  girls  operated 
by  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society,  and  a 
home  for  the  president.  Tennis  courts  and  croquet 
and  ball  grounds  are  spots  of  i)ronounced  activity 
during  recreation  hours.  After  visiting  some  of 
the  dilapidated  buildings  and  neglected  spots  de- 
voted to  public-school  purposes  in  the  State,  a  view 
of  Rust  campus  is  like  the  view  of  an  oasis  in  a 
desert.  Rust  College  has  indeed  been  a  spot  of 
refreshment  during  the  years  of  the  past,  and  the 
contribution  which  the  school  has  made  to  the  life 
of  Mississippi  is  too  large  for  computation. 

Early  Days  at  the  School 

This  school  was  opened  in  Asbury  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  Holly  Springs  in  18G7.  The 
Rev.  A.  C.  McDonald  served  as  the  first  president. 
A  considerable  piece  of  ground  was  purchased  soon 


124 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


RUST  COLLEGE 
The  Central  Building  and  Some  of  the  Students  in  Action 


HEART  OF  THE  ''BLACK  BELT"        125 

after,  and  the  first  college  building  \N'as  erected. 
The  school  was  called  Shaw  L'niversity,  in  honor  of 
the  Eev.  S.  P.  Shaw,  who  made  a  liberal  donation 
toward  the  work.  It  was  afterward  changed  to 
Rust  University  in  order  to  avoid  confusion  with 
another  school  known  as  Shaw  L^niversitv.  It  is 
now  commonly  known  as  Rust  College.  The  origi- 
nal charter  was  granted  May  20,  1870. 

When  the  first  building  was  going  up,  a  wind 
storm  came  along  and  blew  down  the  partly  raised 
structure.  The  building  went  up  in  spite  of 
this  fact,  and  it  is  still  standing.  A  bell  was  in- 
stalled in  connection  with  it,  and  when  it  sounded 
for  the  first  time  an  old  colored  woman  shouted 
aloud  with  joy.  In  all  her  life  up  to  that  time  the 
only  bell  she  had  heard  had  been  the  plantation 
bell  calling  the  slaves  to  work.  Now  to  have  a 
real  bell  calling  black  boys  and  girls  to  school  was 
an  experience  so  profound  and  epoch-making  as  to 
be  well  worth  shouting  about. 

Not  all  of  the  i)upils  of  those  early  days  were 
boys  and  girls,  however.  Grown  men  and  women 
came  out  of  slavery  into  the  school,  and  small  boys 
might  Jiave  been  seen  seated  on  the  laps  of  old  men 
on  the  campus  heljjing  them  to  master  their  lessons. 

The  Work  of  the  School 

From  the  beginning  the  school  has  maintained 
an  Elementary  Department,  the  poor  public  school 
facilities  of  the  State  for  Negroes  rendering  this  a 
practical   necessity.     The   Secondary   Department 


126  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

has  also  met  a  real  need,  as  there  are  almost  no 
colored  high  schools  in  the  State,  and  of  those  so 
listed  probably  not  one  gives  a  fonr-3'ear  high  school 
course.  The  college  preparatory  and  normal  work 
has  formed  an  important  part  of  the  school  pro- 
gram. In  addition  the  Industrial  and  Commercial 
Departments  have  made  substantial  contributions 
to  the  etfectiveness  of  the  work.  The  number  en- 
rolled in  the  College  Dex)artment  proper  has  always 
been  small,  owing  to  the  limited  opportunities  for 
secondary  education  in  the  State,  but  the  graduates 
and  former  pupils  have  a  high  record  of  usefulness. 

The  Alumni 

There  are  more  than  one  hundred  men  in  the 
Upper  Mississippi  Conference,  and  of  these  more 
than  half  are  graduates  or  former  students  of  Rust. 
Among  school  executives  must  be  included  Presi- 
dent M.  AY.  Dogan  of  Wiley  College,  President 
J.  B.  F.  Shaw  of  Central  Alabama  Institute,  Prin- 
cipal I.  H.  Miller  of  Cooknmn  Institute,  and  Dean 
L.  M.  McCoy  of  Morgan  College.  The  Hon.  Perry 
W.  Howard,  recently  appointed  Assistant  Attorney 
General  of  the  United  States,  is  a  graduate  here. 
There  are  also  many  of  the  successful  doctors,  den- 
tists, business  men,  school  teachers,  and  others  in 
the  list.  Few  schools  have  more  in  proportion  to 
show  for  their  ettorts. 

The  Present  President 
President  M.  S.  Davage  is  himself  a  graduate  of 


HEART  OF  THE  ''BLACK  BELT"        127 

another  of  the  schools  of  the  Board  of  Education 
for  Negroes,  namely,  New  Orleans  (""ollege.  His 
father,  a  product  of  slavery,  was  one  of  the  oldest 
members  of  the  Louisiana  Conference.  When  Mr. 
Davage  had  completed  his  study  at  New  Orleans, 
he  went  to  the  Universit}^  of  Chicago  for  post- 
graduate work.  He  tanght  for  a  time  at  New  Or- 
leans College,  served  for  ten  years  as  business 
manager  of  the  Southwestern  Christian  Advocate, 
and  since  that  time  has  been  successively  in  charge 
of  George  R.  Smith  College,  Haven  Institute,  Sam- 
uel Huston  College,  and  Rust  College.  Under  his 
wise  and  experienced  leadership  Rust  College 
should  move  on  to  even  greater  usefulness  in  the 
future. 

Rust  Home 

The  Elizabeth  L.  Rust  Home,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society,  was 
opened  on  the  campus  of  Rust  College  in  1884. 
Since  that  time  it  has  played  an  important  part  in 
the  life  of  the  school.  In  recent  years  it  has  been 
under  the  devoted  leadership  of  Miss  M.  E.  Becker, 
now  superintendent  emeritus,  although  still  in  ac- 
tive service,  and  Miss  Rebecca  Barbour.  Each  of 
these  estimable  ladies  has  given  more  than  fifteen 
years  to  the  work  of  this  Home.  About  sixty  girls 
live  at  the  Home  and  all  of  the  girls  of  the  college 
are  enrolled  in  the  Domestic  Science  and  Domestic 
Art  Departments  of  the  school,  which  are  under  the 
direction  of  the  Home.     The  work  in  these  depart- 


128  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

merits  is  thoroughly  organized  and  carried  on  under 
the  best  of  conditions. 

It  is  perhaps  not  easy  to  appreciate  how  much 
this  phase  of  the  work  means  in  the  lives  of  the 
pupils.  Some  time  ago  one  of  the  girls  at  the  home 
was  taken  suddenly  and  seriously  ill,  and  it  became 
necessary  to  send  for  her  mother.  The  mother  ar- 
rived in  due  time,  although  she  had  never  been  ten 
miles  from  home  before  and  never  had  ridden  on  a 
train  previously.  Her  reaction  to  what  she  found 
was  most  illuminating.  It  was  her  first  experience 
upstaiis  in  a  house,  because  she  never  before  had 
been  in  a  house  that  had  an  upstairs.  Electric 
switches  and  other  contrivances  Avere  marvels  to 
her.  Fortunately  the  daughter  began  to  mend,  and 
the  mother  was  taken  to  visit  the  cooking  classes, 
the  sewing  room,  and  other  activities  of  the  school. 
At  every  step  of  the  way  her  oft  repeated  question 
was,  ''Does  my  daughter  do  that?"  It  all  seemed 
too  good  to  be  true.  When  the  time  came  for  her 
to  leave  the  school  the  mother  said,  "All  my  life  I 
have  wanted  to  go  to  school,  and  now  I  have  really 
been  through  college." 

Crowding 

Like  many  other  schools  for  Negroes,  Eust  Col- 
lege is  crowded  beyond  its  capacity.  Five  hundred 
pupils  were  enrolled  in  a  recent  year,  and,  although 
twice  as  many  were  crowded  into  the  dormitories 
as  they  were  originally  intended  for,  more  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pupils  were  turned  away  for 


HEART  OF  THE  "BLACK  BELT" 


129 


lack  of  room.  New  dormitory  space  and  a  modern 
refectory  have  been  asked  for.  The  continued  suc- 
cess of  the  program  of  Centenary  advance  will  de- 
termine whether  these  and  other  pressing  needs  of 
this  very  effective  and  greatly  needed  school  are  to 
be  supplied. 

Haven  Institute 


The  Board  of  Education  for  Ne- 
groes has  a  second  school  in  Mis- 
sissippi. This  school,  now  known 
as  Haven  Institute,  had  its  begin- 
ning in  the  brain  of  Moses  Adams, 
an  old  colored  man,  an  ex-slave, 
and  a  ''before-the-war"  preacher. 
Started  in  18G5,  the  school  has 
from  the  very  first  been  under  the 
direction  of  colored  leaders. 
Among  those  who  have  had  charge 
of  the  school  are  J.  H.  Brooks, 
J.  L.  Wilson,  W.  W.  Lucas,  the 
Rev.  J.  B.  F.  Shaw,  Professor  M. 
S.  Davage,  now  president  of  Sam- 
uel Huston  College,  and  the  Rev.  R.  N.  Brooks,  now 
principal  of  Central  Alabama  Institute.  The  school 
is  now  in  charge  of  the  Rev.  J.  B.  F.  Shaw.  Presi- 
dent Shaw  was  born  in  a  log  cabin  in  the  State  of 
Mississippi,  and  as  a  youth  was  thoroughly  discip- 
lined in  the  school  of  hard  work.  He  attended  Rust 
College,  where  he  earned  the  degree  of  A.B.,  and 


PRESIDENT 
J.    B.    F.    SHAW 


130 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


later  be  studied  in  Chicago.  He  has  had  a  success- 
ful career  as  a  teacher  and  school  administrator, 
having  had  charge  of  this  same  school  at  an  earlier 
period.  When  Professor  Alexander  Priestly  Cam- 
j)hor  was  made  Missionary'  Bishop  to  Africa  in 
1916,  Professor  Shaw  succeeded  him  as  head  of 
Central  Alabama  Institute.  He  remained  with  the 
school  until  1921,  when  he  was  recalled  to  Haven 
Institute  to  take  charge  of  the  larger  program 
which  is  now  being  made  possible  by  the  removal 
of  the  school  to  a  new  and  more  satisfactory  home. 
In  all  of  his  work  President  Shaw  is  ably  assisted 
by  his  talented  and  cultured  wife,  who  is  also  a 
araduate  of  Kust  College. 


CENTRAL  BUILDING,  HAVEN  INSTITUTE 


HEART  OF  THE  "BLACK  BELT"        131 


THE    CONSERVATORY    OF    MUSIC    AND    OTHER    VIEWS 
OF  HAVEN  INSTITUTE 


132  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

A  New  Home  for  the  School 

Since  its  founding  this  school  has  been  located  in 
Meridian,  the  largest  city  in  Mississippi.  For 
years  the  institution  has  been  limited  for  lack  of 
adequate  room  for  expansion  and  development. 
Fncounted  crowds  of  students  have  been  turned 
away  for  lack  of  dormitory  space  and  school  fa- 
cilities. Recently  an  unusual  opportunity  came  to 
the  school  to  secure,  a  mile  outside  of  Meridian, 
one  hundred  acres  of  land,  a  beautiful  and  fully 
equipped  school  property,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
dispose  of  the  property  so  long  held  in  town.  The 
impetus  of  the  Centenary  was  at  hand  and  the 
Board  of  Education  for  Negroes,  after  careful  con- 
sideration, decided  that  it  was  feasible  to  make  the 
exchange  and  lo  provide  the  extra  money  needed 
to  complete  the  transaction.  In  October,  1021,  the 
school  opened  in  its  new  home. 

This  beautiful  new  location  was  until  recently 
the  home  of  a  Southern  girls'  school  known  as 
Meridian  College  and  Conservatory.  It  has  not 
only  a  wonderful  expanse  of  campus,  but  also  ade- 
quate and  commodious  school  buildings  fully 
equipped  for  work.  A  large  conservatory  of  music 
is  included,  with  a  pipe  organ,  numerous  pianos 
and  other  musical  equipment.  Every  room  in  the 
dormitories  is  equipped  with  running  water,  and 
an  excellent  swimming  pool  is  also  a  part  of  the 
school  equipment.  Coupled  with  the  campus  is  a 
large  and  productive  farm  yearly  producing  many 


HEART  OF  THE  "BLACK  BELT"        133 

acres  of  fresh  vegetables  of  many  sorts  and  sup- 
porting a  dairy  to  provide  milk  and  other  dairy 
products  for  the  school.  It  will  also  afford  oppor- 
tunity for  the  extension  of  the  agricultural  courses 
which  have  previously  been  included  as  a  part  of 
the  regular  curriculum  of  the  school. 

Although  a  mile  from  town,  the  new  school  prop- 
erty is  provided  with  electric  transportation  service 
so  that  it  is  easily  accessible.  Altogether  the  new 
situation  seems  to  be  most  excellently  adapted  to 
the  expanding  needs  of  Haven  Institute,  and  it  is 
of  large  significance  to  the  colored  people  of  the 
belated  State  of  Mississippi  that  they  should  have 
available  a  school  campus,  buildings,  and  equip- 
ment so  admirably  fitted  for  the  training  and  uplift 
of  their  young  men  and  women.  In  the  field  of 
college-preparatory  work,  nornuil  training,  music, 
commercial  branches,  agricultural  training,  and  in 
other  lines  Haven  Institute  has  possibilities  of  de- 
velopment which  will  be  limited  only  by  the  vision 
of  her  leaders  and  the  support  of  her  friends.  The 
future  of  this  school  bids  fair  to  far  exceed  its  very 
worthy  past. 

Central  Alabama  Institute 

Directly  east  of  Mississippi  is  the  State  of  Ala- 
bama, another  of  the  "Idack  belt"  States.  While 
the  proportion  of  the  colored  population  in  Ala- 
bama is  not  quite  so  large  as  in  the  case  of  Missis- 
sippi, the  rate  of  illiteracy  among  Negroes  in  the 


134 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


State  is  even  greatei-  than  among  the  Negroes  of 
Mississippi.       Unlike    Mississippi,     Alabama    has 
some  large  and  busy  cities.     In  the  suburbs  of  Bir- 
mingham, the  largest  and  busiest 
of  these,  the  Board  of  Education 
for  Negroes  is  at  work. 

Central    Alabama    Institute    is 

located  at  Mason   City,   a   Negro 

1  gJ^^^*^  residential  community  named 
after  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  a  former 
secretary  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid 
Society.  The  campus,  which  con- 
sists of  forty  acres  of  beautiful 
pine  woods,  is  located  a  mile  be- 
yond the  end  of  the  Birmingham 
car  line,  but  within  a  few  rods  of 
a  railroad  station.  The  location 
is  a  pleasant  and  healthful  one. 
The  main  school  building  is  at- 
tractive in  appearance  and  well  adapted  to  school 
uses.  Thi.5  building,  "Brainerd  Hall,"  was  made 
possible  by  a  generous  contribution  from  Mrs. 
Mary  G.  Brainerd  of  Waterville,  New  York,  in 
honor  of  her  son,  Daniel  A.  Brainerd.  Besides  this 
building  there  are  a  boys'  dormitory,  a  home  for 
the  president,  and  other  minor  buildings.  A  por- 
tion of  the  land  is  used  for  agricultural  purposes. 
As  a  part  of  the  Centenary  program  a  fine  new 
dormitory  will  be  added  to  the  equipment  of  the 
school. 

This  school,  formerly  known  as  the  Rust  Normal 


PRESIDENT 
K.     N.     BROOKS 


HEAKT  OF  THE  ''BLACK  BELT"    135 


BRAINERD  HALL,  CENTRAL  ALABAMA  INSTITUTE 


STUDENTS,  CENTRAL  ALABAMA  INSTITUTE 


136  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Institute,  was  located  at  Hniitsville,  Alabama,  in 
the  northern  part  of  the  State.  It  was  founded  in 
1872  and  rendered  good  service.  It  was  moved  in 
1904  to  Birmingham,  a  city  with  a  colored  popula- 
tion of  more  than  seventy  thousand,  with  the 
thought  that  this  central  location  would  help  to 
extend  its  tield  of  usefulness.  It  has  developed 
more  nearly  into  a  family  school  than  any  other  of 
the  schools  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes. 
The  emphasis  is  upon  secondary  and  normal  train- 
ing, and  the  more  than  two  hundred  pupils  of  the 
school  have  an  opportunity  to  study  under  the  most 
wholesome  conditions  and  under  teachers  whose 
influence  is  inspiring  and  uplifting.  In  addition 
to  the  usual  normal  and  secondary  branches  there 
are  special  departments  giving  instruction  in  mu- 
sic, domestic  science,  domestic  art,  and  commercial 
subjects. 

It  was  here  at  Central  Alabama  Institute  that  the 
Rev.  Alexander  P.  Camphor  was  so  long  in  charge, 
and  it  was  from  here  that  he  was  elected  as  Mis- 
sionary Bishop  for  Africa  in  1916.  When  he  as- 
sumed his  new  resi)onsibilities  the  Rev.  J.  B.  F. 
Shaw  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  school.  The 
present  principal  is  the  Rev.  R.  N.  Brooks,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Bennett  College  and  of  Gammon  Theological 
Seminary.  After  a  successful  period  in  the  pas- 
torate he  went  to  Northwestern  University,  where 
he  earned  his  A.M.  in  the  field  of  education.  For 
two  years  he  served  at  Washington,  D.  C,  as  the 
representative  of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools  of 


HEART  OF  THE  "IJLACK  BELT'        llil 

the  Methodist  Episcopal  Chni-ch,  fi-om  which  posi- 
tion he  was  called  to  take  charge  of  Haven  Insti- 
tute. In  1921  he  was  transferred  to  Central 
Alabama  Institute,  where  he  has  a  large  held  of 
usefulness.  Mrs.  Brooks  is  the  daughter  of  Dr. 
W.  H.  Crognian  of  Clark  University,  and  she  is  a 
iiraduate  of  that  school. 


CHAPTER  IX 


LOOKING  TOWARD  THE  WEST 


George  R.  Smith  College  and  Philander  Smith  College 

From  the  standpoint  of  jieo- 
graphical  distribution  the  Xegro 
is  more  nearly  a  national  phe- 
nomenon than  ever  before.  The 
Xoi-thward  and  Westward  trend 
of  colored  life  has  been  greatly 
accentuated  diu-ing  the  last  dec- 
ade. While  in  some  Southern 
States  the  number  of  Negroes 
has  not  only  relatiyely  but  ac- 
tually decreased,  the  increase  in 
certain  Northern  and  Western 
communities  has  amounted  in 
many  cases  to  seyeral  hundred 
per  cent.  It  is  an  interesting  fact 
that  all  of  the  largest  city  centers  of  Negro  life  in 
the  United  States  are  to-day  in  the  North  and  not 
in  the  South.  Thus  we  haye  the  phenomena  of  Ne- 
gro parents  residing  in  the  North  and  sending  their 
pu])ils  South  to  be  educated  in  the  schools  of  the 
church.  In  a  similar  way  the  colored  man  has 
been  discoyering  the  West.  Crowds  haye  gone  to 
Oklahoma,  and  others  haye  settled  in  Kansas,  Ari- 
zona. California,  and  other  Western  States.     They 

138 


PRKPTTtEXT 
ROBERT   B.    HAYES 


LOOKING  TOWARD  THE  WEST        139 

too  look  back  to  the  cliurcli  schools  as  the  place 
where  the}'  can  send  their  children  to  be  educated 
and  feel  that  they  are  safely  cared  for.  It  is  for- 
tunate that  some  of  the  schools  of  the  Board  are 
so  located  as  to  be  able  to  minister  effectively  to 
portions  of  this  more  distant  field  as  well  as  to 
their  immediate  neii>hborhoods.  One  of  the  schools 
so  located  is  the  George  R.  Smith  College  at  Sedalia, 
Missouri. 

General  George  R.  Smith 

Although  George  R.  Smith  had  nothing  directly 
to  do  with  the  founding  of  the  college,  he  was  the 
founder  of  Sedalia,  and  his  story  is  an  interesting 
one.     He  was  a  Virginian  by  birth,  although  he 


L, 


GEORGE  R.  SMITH  COLLEGE 


140  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

moved  later  with  his  father  to  Kentncky,  and 
finally  migrated  with  his  father-in-law  to  Missouri. 
Here  in  this  new  country,  by  natural  genius,  will 
power,  and  hard  work,  he  amassed  a  fortune  and 
made  a  place  for  himself  in  the  affairs  of  the  8tate. 

Although  a  Southerner  b}'  birth  and  at  certain 
times,  by  force  of  circumstances,  an  owner  of  slaves, 
he  was  unalterably  opposed  to  the  whole  system. 
His  father  had  owned  about  forty  slaves,  but  had 
freed  most  of  them  before  his  death.  In  the  debates 
just  preceding  the  war  George  R.  Smith  took  a  very 
active  part,  and  he  stood  uncompromisingly  for  the 
Union. 

He  was  a  big  man  in  every  way;  he  had  a  deep 
resonant  voice,  great  courage,  and  high  ideals;  he 
was  broad-minded,  and,  although  sometimes  severe 
in  statement,  he  was  kindly  at  heart.  Little  chil- 
dren loved  him. 

Story  of  the  School 

After  the  death  of  General  Smith  his  daughters, 
imjjressed  by  the  work  being  done  for  Negroes  by 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  although  they 
were  themselves  members  of  another  church,  gave 
to  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  twenty-eight  acres 
of  land  at  the  edge  of  the  city  of  Sedalia  for  the 
founding  of  a  college  for  Negroes.  The  gift  was 
made  in  1888,  but  it  was  not  until  1891  that  a 
building  was  erected  and  the  school  opened.  Fifty- 
seven  students  were  enrolled  the  first  year.  The 
school  was  regularly  chartered  in  1903.     Since  its 


LOOKING  TOWARD  THE  WEST        141 

organization  more  than  two  thousand  stndents  have 
profited  by  its  instrnetion.  The  school  has  always 
been  small  in  numbers  because  of  its  limited  dor- 
mitory and  class-room  facilities,  but  up  to  its 
capacity  it  has  done  excellent  service.  Funds  have 
never  been  available  for  the  erection  of  much 
needed  buildings  until  the  coming  of  the  Cente- 
nary. It  is  expected  that  in  the  near  future  the 
present  doriliitory  can  be  remodeled  and  a  new  one 
for  girls  erected. 

The  Students 

Most  of  the  students  come  from  Missouri,  Kan- 
sas, and  Oklahoma,  although  they  come  from  as  far 
AVest  as  California  and  as  far  North  as  Illinois  and 
Wisconsin.  One  of  the  present  students  is  a  na- 
tive of  Africa.  In  that  far-off  country  he  read  in 
a  paper  of  the  George  R.  Smith  College  and  decided 
that  it  was  the  school  which  he  wished  to  attend. 
With  the  aid  of  his  mother  he  secured  passage  to 
New  York,  and,  in  company  with  another  native 
African  boy,  he  made  the  far  journey  to  the  new 
land.  After  a  few  months  of  waiting  table  in  New 
York  city  he  moved  on  to  Sedalia,  where  he  is  now 
"working  his  way"  through  school.  Upon  his  fore- 
head he  bears  the  scars  of  gashes  made  by  the  native 
African  doctor  to  let  out  the  black  fever.  When  he 
has  finished  his  schooling  he  expects  to  return  to 
his  native  land.  Thus  the  influence  of  George  R. 
Smith  College  is  being  extended  even  beyond  the 
sea. 


142  NEGRO  EDUCATION' 

Many  of  the  students  at  the  school  are  employed 
in  Sedalia,  and  their  labor  is  much  appreciated. 
In  fact,  the  people  of  the  town  have  cooperated 
most  effectively  with  the  school  in  this  matter  of 
supplying  opportunities  for  the  students  to  work. 
Some  do  housework;  others  act  as  yard  boys,  wait- 
ers, porters,  and  in  other  capacities.  One  girl  is 
an  expert  salad  maker  at  the  local  hotel,  and  she 
has  been  paying  her  way  through  school  by  making- 
salads;  another  works  in  an  office,  and  so  the  list 
might  be  extended. 

Student  Activities 

The  students  maintain  a  number  of  literary, 
athletic,  and  religious  organizations.  They  have 
football,  basebaH,  and  basket-ball  teams  for  the 
boys  and  a  basket-ball  team  for  girls.  Much  empha- 
sis is  put  upon  training  in  public  speaking.  A 
State  oratorical  contest  is  held  each  year,  and  for 
two  years  George  R.  Smith  College  has  won  first 
place  in  it.  During  a  recent  year  the  debate  team 
of  the  school  was  undefeated  in  the  State.  Si)ecial 
training  is  given  to  the  religious  life,  and  the  school 
regularly  maintains  a  scholarship  in  Liberia. 

Cooperation 

The  colored  constituency  of  the  school  has  been 
most  loyal  in  its  support.  One  active  colored 
woman  in  Oklahoma,  herself  a  graduate  of  Bennett 
College,  is  building  up  a  dairy  for  George  R.  Smith 


LOOKING  TOWARD  THE  WEST        U3 

by  inducing'  various  colored  chnrclies  of  tlie  Lin- 
coln (Conference  to  buy  thoroughbred  Holstein 
calves  and  give  them  to  the  school.  She  is  also 
active  in  sending  students,  and  she  recently  had 
two  of  her  own  sons  and  a  niece  at  the  school.  One 
successful  Negro  doctor  of  Oklahoma,  himself  a 
graduate  of  George  R.  Smith  and  later  of  Me- 
harry  Medical  Gollege,  has  had  three  children  in 
attendance. 

The  Graduates 

The  graduates  of  the  George  R.  Smith  College  are 
to  be  found  in  many  professions  and  scattered  in 
many  States.  Some  are  in  the  trades;  a  consid- 
erable number  are  employed  by  the  Government; 
one  girl  was  the  first  colored  girl  to  be  employed  as 
a  typist  in  the  Missouri  State  Legislature.  More 
than  one  third  of  the  ministers  in  the  Central  Mis- 
souri Conference  are  either  graduates  or  former 
students  of  the  college.  Dr.  B.  F.  Abbott,  pastor 
of  Union  Memorial  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in 
Saint  Louis,  is  an  alumnus  of  the  school.  More 
than  twenty  of  its  graduates  are  in  the  medical 
profession ;  one  of  these  is  now  a  professor  at  Me- 
harry  Medical  College  and  another  is  part  owner 
of  a  much  needed  hospital  for  colored  people  in 
Oklahoma  City. 

The  President 

The  president  of  George  R.  Smith  College  is  Pro- 
fessor R.  B.  Hayes,  a  capable  colored  nmn  devoted 


144  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

to  the  interests  of  his  people.  Born  in  Texas,  lie 
received  his  public  school  and  hii»h  school  educa- 
tion in  Kansas  and  Oklahoma.  He  then  entered 
Baker  University  in  Kansas.  Here  he  majored  in 
science  and  received  both  his  A.B.  and  his  A.M. 
degrees.  In  college  he  was  prize-winner  in  oratory 
and  he  also  represented  his  school  in  intercollegiate 
debate.  He  won  this  recognition  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  worked  his  way  through  school  as  a  cook 
in  a  position  for  which  he  qualified  by  making- 
biscuits  to  please  Dr.  Parmenter.  Later  he  took 
special  work  at  the  University  of  Chicago.  After 
graduating  from  Baker  he  went  to  Philander  Smith 
College,  where  for  thirteen  years  he  was  in  charge 
of  the  Science  Department.  In  1910  he  was  called 
to  take  charge  of  George  R.  Smith  College,  and 
since  that  time  he  has  been  quietly  but  effectively 
building  his  life  into  the  life  of  the  school  and  in- 
fiuencing  for  good  the  lives  of  the  boys  and  girls 
who  attend  it. 

Philander  Smith  College 

In  the  capital  city  of  Arkansas  stands  Philander 
Smith  College,  ministering  to  the  nearly  half  a 
million  Negroes  in  the  State.  It  has  a  main  college 
building,  a  large  dormitory,  a  small  office  building, 
the  home  of  the  president,  and  the  Adeline  Smith 
Home,  under  the  direction  of  the  Woman's  Home 
Missionary  Society. 

Tliis  school  was  opened  in  connection  with  the 


LOOKING  TOWAin)  THE   WEST        145 


local  Negro  church  in  1877.    It  was  then  known  as 
Walden  Seminary.     In  1883  the  Philander  Smith 
family  gave  ten  thousand  dollars 
toward  the  erection  of  the  present 
main  building. 

Eesults  of  the  Work 

The  first  class  was  gradnated 
from  the  school  in  1888.  '  Since 
that  time  the  graduates  ha've  to- 
taled more  than  five  hundred. 
This  was  the  first  school  for  the 
higher  education  of  the  Negro  to 
be  established  in  the  State.  Of  the 
more  than  two  thousand  teachers 
in  the  colored  schools  of  the  State 
of  Arkansas  a  very  large  pro- 
portion were  trained  here  at 
Philander  Smith.  The  president  of  the  State 
Teachers'  Association  is  a  graduate  of  this  school. 
One  graduate  of  this  school  was  employed  for  sev- 
eral years  as  a  representative  of  the  International 
Sunday  School  Association;  several  have  gone  to 
Africa  as  missionaries;  one  is  noAv  a  professor  at 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary;  and  others  are 
successful  ministers,  doctors,  dentists,  railway  mail 
clerks,  lawyers,  business  men,  housewives,  and 
teachers.  To  a  gratifying  degree  the  students  of 
Philander  Smith  College  have  gone  out  to  engage 
in  effective  and  unselfish  service.  This  school  too 
has  extended  its  influence  far  beyond  the  confines  of 


PRESIDENT 
JAMES  M.   COX 


146  :negeo  educatio^^ 

its  own  State,  and  iDupils  come  to  it  from  as  far 
West  as  California. 

The  Adeline  Smith  Industrial  Home 

The  work  of  the  Adeline  Smith  Industrial  Home 
in  connection  with  the  college  was  begun  in  1883. 
The  Home,  which  is  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Woman's  Home  Missionary  Society  of  the  Method- 
ist Episcopal  Church,  accommodates  about  seventy- 
five  girls,  and  the  training  which  they  receive  in 
it  gives  them  ideals  of  home  life  and  practical  skill 
in  applying  them  to  concrete  situations.  The  work 
in  domestic  science  and  sewing  is  open  to  all  of  the 
girls  in  the  school. 

President  Cox 

Philander  Smith  College  has  never  had  but  two 
presidents;  the  first  was  the  Rev.  Thomas  Mason, 
a  white  man  from  the  North ;  the  second  and  pres- 
ent incumbent  of  the  office  is  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Cox, 
a  Negro.  President  J.  M.  Cox  was  born  in  Ala- 
bama in  18G0.  He  was  educated  at  Clark  Univer- 
sity, where  he  graduated  in  1884.  He  then  entered 
Gammon  Theological  Seminary,  completing  the 
course  in  188G  and  being  the  first  man  to  receive  a 
degree  from  the  seminary.  He  went  directly  to 
Little  Rock,  and  for  eleven  years  taught  Greek  and 
Latin  in  Philander  Smith  College.  In  1897,  after 
President  Mason  resigned.  Professor  Cox  was  made 
president,  and  he  has  been  continuously  in  charge 
of  the  school  since  that  time.    Durinii,'  his  lonii  vears 


LOOKING  TOWAKD  THE  WEST        147 


PHILANDER  SMITH  COLLEGE 

Adeline  Smith  Industrial  Home,  Student  Choir,  Main  Building, 

Young  Men's  Bible  Class,  a  Picnic  Party 


148  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

of  service  be  has  bad  a  cbance  to  see  not  ouly  bis 
students  but  bis  own  cbildveu  go  out  into  fields  of 
useful  service.  One  son  served  in  tbe  army;  an- 
other is  a  successful  dentist;  one  daughter  spent 
four  years  at  tbe  Oberlin  Conservatory  of  Music 
and  is  now  teaching  at  Clark  University ;  a  second 
daughter  is  a  teacher  at  Morgan  College;  and  a 
third  is  still  studying  in  college. 

Tub  Future  of  the  School 

This  school  has  a  large  field  of  usefulness  open 
to  it.  The  very  pressing  need  for  teachers  and  for 
other  trained  workers  is  a  continual  challenge  to 
it.  The  school  is  cramped  in  its  present  quarters. 
It  is  hoped  that  the  Centenary  will  make  possible 
a  much  needed  extension  of  the  facilities  and  pro- 
uram  of  tbe  school. 


CHAPTEK  X 
THE  CAROLINAS 


Claflin  College  and  Bennett  College 
South  Carolina  is  one  of  the     '  " 
two    States   in   the   Union   which 
have  a  lari»er   Neij;i'0  than   white 
population.     From  the  standpoint 
of  Neij;ro  education  conditions  are 
far  from  satisfactory;  .'>S7  out  of 
every  one  thousand  of  the  Negro 
population  over  ten  years  of  ajj^c 
beini;-  illiterate.     In  other  words, 
the  State  has  well  over  a  quarter 
of    a    million    Nei^roes    over    ten 
years  of  age  who  cannot  write,  and 
the  prospect  of  rai)idly  and  radi- 
cally   changing   this    situation    is 
not  as  bright  as  might  be  desired. 
The  public  school  lias  gotten  too  far  behind  its  task 
to  quickly  catch  u])  witli  it.    Tlius  a  recent  report  of 
the  State  Agent  for  Xegro  Schools  in  South  Caro- 
lina says: 

The  school  buildings  are  in  most  instances  wretched, 
the  terms  short,  the  sabiries  low,  practically  no  equip- 
ment, and  the  i)rei)aration  and  fitness  of  the  teachers 
generally  very  inferior.  .  .  .  We  cannot  expect  the 
health  and  morals  of  the  Negro  race  to  be  improved  as 

149 


PRESIDENT 
L.   M.   DUXTON 


150  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

long  as  100  children  are  crowded  into  a  room  where 
there  is  room  for  only  50  or  00  children,  with  the  venti- 
lation and  other  sanitary  conditions  bad.  The  children 
cannot  make  much  i)rogress  in  schools  with  a  term  of 
only  two  or  three  months,  under  teachers  not  prepared 
for  the  work  and  having  twice  the  number  of  children 
they  ought  to  have.  .  .  .  Practically  every  Negro  school 
is  overcrowded,  some  of  them  dreadfully  so.  The 
houses  are  generally  in  a  very  dilapidated  condition. 
.  .  .  Often  the  number  of  seats  is  entirely  inadequate, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  seats  are  generally  of  every 
imaginable  kind  and  condition.  A  great  many  class- 
rooms have  no  blackboard.  Most  Negro  teachers  in 
Negro  schools  have  charge  of  from  seventy-five  to  a 
hundred  children,  and  often  they  have  more  than  a 
hundred  children  in  their  rooms.  .  .  .  Often  the  teach- 
ing is  only  a  farce. 

These  fragments  from  an  official  State  report 
help  to  suggest  something  of  the  distressing  need 
for  Negro  education  in  the  State  and  of  the  utter 
inadequacy  of  equipment  and  facilities  for  meeting 
that  need.  The  same  report  recommends  the  length- 
ening of  the  school  term  to  five  months.  It  also 
records  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time  a  recognized 
public  high  school  for  Negroes  exists  in  the  State; 
in  other  words,  for*  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
the  State  there  is  one  public  high  school  for  a  Ne- 
gro population  totaling  w^ell  up  toward  a  million. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  Work 

In  the  midst  of  this  overwhelming  need  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church  has  long  been  at  work. 
The  South  Carolina  Conference  was  organized  in 
18GG.    Three  vears  later  the  buildings  and  grounds 


THE  CAROLINAS  151 

of  the  Orangeburg'  Female  College  were  purchased 
and  Claflin  University,  named  after  a  former  gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts,  was  organized.  More  than 
three  hundred  students  were  enrolled  the  first  year. 
In  1872  the  State  of  South  Carolina  established 
the  South  Carolina  Agricultural  and  Mechanical 
College  at  Orangeburg  in  connection  with  Claflin. 
An  experimental  farm  was  provided  and  industrial 
training  was  largely  developed  in  addition  to  the 
classical  course  which  was  maintained  from  the 
first.  In  1896,  pursuant  to  a  policy  adopted  by  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  these  two  schools  were  separated  so  far  as 
management  was  concerned,  although  they  still  re- 
main friendly  neighbors  with  campuses  adjoining. 
Since  1883  the  trustees  of  the  John  F.  Slater  Fund 
have  contributed  regularly  to  the  work  of  the  In- 
dustrial Department.  Their  liberality  has  made 
the  extended  industrial  development  possible. 

Present  Equipment  and  Work  of  the  School 

Claflin  College  has  an  excellent  campus  of  about 
fifty  acres  with  a  score  or  more  of  buildings  Avell 
adapted  to  school  purposes.  The  principal  ones  are 
a  fine  and  modern  main  building,  a  large  and  com- 
modious girls'  dormitory,  a  large  boys'  dormitory, 
a  home  where  girls  from  the  surrounding  country 
may  live  and  provide  their  own  food  while  in  school, 
a  library  building,  a  dining  hall,  and  a  large  in- 
dustrial building.  The  campus  is  conveniently  lo- 
cated just  at  the  edge  of  the  city  of  Orangeburg  and 


152 


XEGRO  EDUCATION 


CLAFLIX  COLLEGE 
Tingley  Hall,  a  Campus  Scene,  and  The  Boys^  Dormitory 


THE  CAROLINA^ 


15;] 


within  easy  walking-  distance  of  tlie  railroad  sta- 
tion. The  region  round  about  is  largely  devoted  to 
the  raising  of  cotton.  From  these  farms  crude, 
untaught  Xegro  boys  and  girls  come  to  Clatiin, 
where,  as  they  go  through  the  various  departments 
of  the  school,  they  are  gradually  transformed  into 
alert,  intelligent,  and  useful  citizens.  Some  go  into 
the  trades;  some  teach  school;  some  become  Chris- 
tian ministers;  and  some  go  on  to  professional 
schools  to  study  medicine,  dentistry,  the  law,  or 
theology.  It  has  been  said  that  a  list  of  the  district 
superintendents  and  leading  ministers  of  the  South 
Carolina  Conference,  which  is  the  largest  Negro 
Conference  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  to- 
gether with  a  list  of  the  leading  colored  lawyers, 
phj'sicians,  and  business  men  of  the  entire  region, 
would  almost  be  a  list  of  the  graduates  and  former 
pu]i)ils  of  Claflin.  Many  of  them 
were  converted  in  the  special  meet- 
ings held  nearly  every  year  on  the 
Claflin  campus. 

President  and  Mrs.  Dunton 

President  and  Mrs.  L.  M.  Dun- 
ton  are  both  from  New  York 
State.  While  attending  Syracuse 
University  Mr.  Duuton's  health 
became  seriously  impaired,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  go  South  to  a 
milder  climate.  In  1873  he  ar- 
rived in  Orangeburg,  where  he  be-     mes.  l.  m.  dunton 


154  NEGEO  EDUCATION 

came  a  teacher  and  where  without  premedita- 
tion on  his  part  he  discovered  his  life  work  among 
the  colored  people  of  the  South.  His  direct  con- 
nection with  the  school  was  not  continuous.  He 
served  for  several  years  as  pastor  and  presiding 
elder  until  1883,  when  he  was  elected  vice-president 
of  Claflin.  A  few  months  later,  in  1884,  he  became 
president  of  the  school.  Since  that  time  the  re- 
markable development  of  Claflin  has  been  closely 
interwoven  with  the  earnest  and  effective  service  of 
Dr.  Dunton  and  his  talented  and  cultured  wife. 

The  pari  which  Mrs.  Dunton  has  played  has  been 
a  most  important  one.  Although  working  most  of 
the  time  without  salary,  she  has  given  herself  un- 
reservedly to  serving  in  the  classroom  and  in  the 
field,  promoting  the  work.  With  her  skill  and 
thorough  training  in  modern  languages  perfected 
by  years  of  diligent  study  and  travel  abroad,  she 
has  made  a  most  varied  contribution  to  the  school. 
The  influence  of  Mrs.  Dunton  has  not  been  limited 
to  the  campus,  however.  During  the  years  when 
Dr.  Dunton's  health  would  not  permit  him  to  be 
in  the  North  during  the  winter,  she  traveled  widely, 
presenting  the  work  of  the  school  and  making 
friends  for  it.  She  spoke  in  nearly  every  State 
from  Maine  to  California,  and  that  she  spoke  ef- 
fectively the  many  buildings  on  the  Claflin  campus 
testify.  One  of  them,  against  her  will,  is  named 
in  her  honor.  The  finest  building  on  the  campus, 
Tingley  Hall,  used  as  the  main  college  building, 
came  as  the  result  of  her  courtesy  to  a  stranger 


THE  CAROLINAS  155 

at  the  Orangeburg'  station.  She  has  played  an  im- 
portant role  in  building  up  the  remarkable  Music 
Department  at  Claflin,  and  in  a  multitude  of  other 
ways  has  left  her  imprint  upon  the  life  of  the  school. 
Whenever  the  story  of  Claflin  is  told  it  will  record 
the  nearly  half  a  century  of  devoted  service  given 
by  President  and  Mrs.  Dunton. 

The  Future  of  the  School 

The  future  of  Claflin  is  full  of  promise.  The  fine 
traditions  of  the  school,  the  good  physical  equip- 
ment, and  the  distressing  need  on  every  hand  for 
its  ministry  provide  the  setting  for  a  future  of  un- 
usual usefulness.  It  is  important,  however,  that 
the  present  small  endowment  of  this  school  be 
substantially  increased  if  it  is  to  measure  up  to  the 
demands  placed  upon  it. 

Bennett  College 

Bennett  College,  at  Greensboro,  North  Carolina, 
was  organized  by  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  in 
1873.  It  occupies  an  attractive  campus  just  at  the 
edge  of  the  city.  Throughout  its  history  it  has  been 
characterized  by  the  devotion  of  its  colored  con- 
stituency to  it  and  by  the  usefulness  of  the  lives  of 
its  graduates.  It  records  among  its  alumni  more 
than  twenty  doctors  and  a  goodly  number  of  mer- 
chants, teachers,  dentists,  college  professors,  farm- 
ers, postal  clerks,  and  others.  In  the  turning  of 
men  to  the  ministry  Bennett  College  has  an  en- 


156 


XEGRO  EDUCATION 


viable  record,  haying  sent  more  graduates  to  Gam- 
mon Theological  Seminary  than  any  other  school. 
Both  of  the  Xegro  Bishops  elected  at  the  1920  Gen- 
eral Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  Bishop  Mat- 
thew W.  Clair  and  Bishop  Robert 
E.  Jones,  are  listed  as  alumni  of 
Bennett. 

Crowded  Conditions 

For  some  time  the  story  of  Ben- 
nett has  been  a  story  of  oyer- 
crowding.  Two  pupils  haye  been 
put  at  desks  made  for  one  and 
three  pupils  at  desks  made  for 
two.  Six  or  eight  indiyiduals 
haye  occupied  sleexoing  quarters 
designed  for  four;  cots  haye  been 
set  up  by  night  and  taken  down 
by  day;  and  halls  haye  been  filled  with  trunks 
which  should  haye  been  elsewhere  had  there  been 
space  for  them.  The  reason  for  this  badly  congested 
condition  lies  both  in  the  eagerness  of  the  large  Xe- 
gro  population  of  North  Carolina  to  take  advantage 
of  the  educational  opportunities  which  are  offered 
and  also  in  the  utter  inadequacy  of  the  physical 
equipment  of  the  school.  A  situation  which  was 
bad  enough  was  made  worse  by  the  burning  of  one 
of  the  old  school  buildings  which  had  l)een  erected 
some  years  previously  by  the  gifts  of  the  colored 
people   of   North    Carolina.      This   brick   building 


PIIKSIDKXT 
FRANK   TRKJG 


THE  CAROLINAS  157 

housed  a  boys'  dormitory,  the  school  chapel,  and 
other  rooms  adapted  and  used  for  school  purposes. 
Since  the  fire  the  boys  have  been  forced  to  find 
lodgings  in  the  Negro  homes  of  Greensboro,  and 
school  assemblages  have  been  held  in  Saint  Mat- 
thew's Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  more  than  a 
mile  away  from  the  campus.  The  fire  did,  however, 
pave  the  way  for  a  much  needed  remaking  of  Ben- 
nett physically.  It  is  now  proposed  to  erect  a 
modern  dormitory,  a  chapel  and  administration 
building,  and  a  refectory.  The  strengthening  of 
the  work  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes 
through  the  Centenary  program  of  advance  has 
already  made  possible  the  beginning  of  the  new  dor- 
mitory and  the  work  on  this  and  other  needed 
buildings  will  move  forward  as  rapidl}'^  as  funds  are 
made  available. 

The  Students 

The  students  are  an  alert  group  of  young  colored 
Americans.  A  number  of  them  served  in  the  World 
War  and  others  have  already  given  a  good  account 
of  tJiemselves  in  a  variety  of  occupations.  During 
the  summers  some  go  back  to  the  farm  and  others 
scatter  throughout  the  Xorth,  engaging  in  a  multi- 
tude of  remunerative  activities. 

The  Story  of  a  Poor  Boy 

Some  years  ago  there  was  born  in  Greensboro  a 
colored  boy,  whom  the  parents  named  Robert.  The 
home  was  not  one  of  luxurv,  but  of  the  utmost  sim- 


158 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


plicity.  There  were  many  difficult  times  in  "■mak- 
ing both  ends  meet";  but  there  ^Yas  also  Bennett 
College.  Perseverance  and  diligence  on  the  part 
of  both  mother  and  son  made  possible  the  comple- 
tion of  the  course  offered  by  Bennett,  and  then  the 
son  went  on  to  Gammon   Theological   Seminary. 


^>  '- 


BENNETT  COLLEGE  CAMPUS 


The  going  was  not  an  easy  one,  for  it  brought 
the  criticism  of  neighbors  upon  the  mother  for 
sending  away  her  oldest  sou;  and  it  cost  her  the 
sacrifice  of  a,  home  already  partly  paid  for.  The 
boy,  hoAvever,  did  not  disappoint  her,  for  he  was 
none  otlier  than  Robert  E.  Jones,  the  present  hon- 
ored Bishop  of  the  New  Orleans  Area  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church,  who  without  Bennett  Col- 


THE  CAROLINAS  150 

lege  might  never  have  had  the  opportunity  of  an 
education.  And  the  mother,  born  in  slavery  but 
determined  that  her  boy  should  have  his  "chance," 
does  not  regret  the  sacrifice  she  made  or  the  price 
she  paid.  She  rejoices  to-day  not  only  in  the  service 
which  her  oldest  boy  has  been  permitted  to  render, 
but  also  in  the  success  of  her  other  boy,  who,  a 
graduate  of  another  school  conducted  by  the  Board 
of  Education  for  Negroes,  is  the  executive  head  of 
one  of  the  best  housed  and  most  successful  Negro 
Young  Men's  Christian  Associations  in  the  United 
States. 

President  Frank  Trigg 

President  Frank  Trigg  of  Bennett  College  was 
born  in  the  Governor's  mansion  in  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, with,  as  he  humorously  relates,  "the  face  of 
Patrick  Henry  in  oil"  looking  down  upon  him.  In 
spite  of  these  seemingly  auspicious  circumstances 
he  was  born  a  slave.  He  was  eleven  years  old  when 
the  Civil  War  ended.  All  through  it  he  remained 
faithful  to  his  mistress.  One  of  the  greatest 
achievements  of  his  life  was  when,  with  all  of  the 
men  away  in  the  army,  he  hitched  up  a  mule  and  an 
old  gray  horse  and  drove  four  miles  into  the  coun- 
try in  order  to  get  wood  to  keep  the  home  of  his 
mistress  warm.  Shortly  after  that  event  he  sac- 
rificed an  arm  in  her  service,  but  in  spite  of  that 
handicap  he  has  made  a  remarkable  record.  In 
order  to  get  an  education  he  drove  a  scavenger 
wagon,  and  although  he  was  taunted  for  his  occu- 


IGO 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


pation  he  refused  to  receive  aid  wliicli  he  did  not 
earn.  He  went  to  Hampton  Institute,  where  he 
won  his  way  into  the  affections  of  General  Arm- 
strong-. Since  his  graduation  he  has  come  up 
through  a  long  life  of  useful  service  to  occupy  his 
present  position.     Possibly  one  of  the  best  testi- 


KENT  HOME 

monies  to  the  consistency  of  the  life  he  has  lived 
lies  in  the  fact  that  his  children  have  all  gone  out 
to  enter  useful  and  honorable  fields  of  service. 


Kent  Home 

Since  1884  the  Woman's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety has  cooperated  in  the  work  at  Bennett  through 
Kent  Home.  The  original  building  was  destroyed 
by  fire,  but  it  has  been  replaced  by  a  larger  one, 


THE  CAROLINAS  161 

which  is  taxed  to  its  capacity.  Courses  in  mil- 
linery, sewini;-,  and  cookinji,'  are  given  for  the  benefit 
of  all  the  girls  in  the  school.  In  addition  the  girls 
who  live  at  the  Home  receive  special  training  in 
the  art  of  home  making  under  the  direction  of  the 
capable  and  efficient  leaders  provided  by  the  so- 
ciety. 


CHAPTER  XI 


IN  "SUNNY  TENNESSEE" 


Morristown  Normal  and  Industrial  College  and  Walden 
University 

p"--"—  ""  On  a  conimanding  elevation  at 

the  edge  of  the  city  of  Morristown, 
Tennessee,  is  the  fif  tj'-acre  campus 
of  Morristown  Normal  and  Indus- 
trial College.  It  has  a  beautiful 
new  main  school  building,  toward 
which  Andrew  Carnegie  and 
others  contributed,  one  fine  large 
dormitory  building  which  also 
serves  as  a  dining  hall,  a  teachers' 
cottage,  the  New  Jersey  Industrial 
Home  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Woman's  Home  Missionary  So- 
ciety, and  two  industrial  build- 
ings. Not  far  away  is  the  com- 
fortable home  of  the  president  of  the  school,  and  a 
short  drive  into  the  country  brings  one  to  the  beau- 
tiful three-hundred-acre  farm  which  is  also  the 
property  of  the  school.  This  is  the  school  physi- 
cally, but  back  of  every  building  and  back  of  every 
improvement  stands  the  steady  and  persistent  ef- 

162 


PRESIDENT 
JUDSON    S.    HILl.. 


IN  ''SUNNY  TENNESSEE" 


163 


fort  of  President  J.  S.  Hill,  who  since  the  organ- 
ization of  the  school  has  been  in  charge  of  the  work. 

In  the  Beginning 

In  August,  1881,  the  Rev.  Judson  S.  Hill  went  to 
Morristown  to  serve  the  "Morristown  Circuit/'  or, 


ORIGINAL    BUILDING   AT   MORRISTOWN   NORMAL   AND 
INDUSTRIAL  COLLEGE 


in  other  words,  to  take  charge  of  a  white  church 
which  did  not  then  exist.  It  was  tacitly  under- 
stood, however,  that  his  main  job  was  to  organize  a 
school  for  Negroes  in  Morristown.  He  did  not  de- 
lay long,  for  in  September  immediately  fol- 
lowing his  arrival  the  school  was  opened.  The 
school  was  called  Morristown  Seminary,  and  the 


164  XEGRO  EDUCATI0:N 

pupils  ranged  in  age  from  seven  to  seventy  years. 
An  appropriation  of  three  linndred  dollars  was 
made  by  the  Missionary  Society  for  the  support  of 
Mr.  Hill  as  pastor.  As  a  teacher  he  received  no 
salary.  There  was  one  other  teacher  the  first  year, 
who  was  paid  from  tuition  funds  received.  One 
interesting  circumstance  has  grown  out  of  the  fact 
that  some  of  the  first  pupils  were  old  men  and 
women,  namely,  that,  although  the  school  is  only 
forty  years  old,  there  are  actually  in  attendance 
to-day  some  of  the  fifth  generation  descendants  of 
those  first  pupils. 

A  Converted  Slave  Mart 

One  of  Bishop  Henry  W.  Warren's  first  official 
acts  was  to  purchase  in  1881  a  home  for  this  new 
school.  The  building  secured  had  previously  been 
known  as  the  Reagan  High  School,  but  the  building 
itself  had  had  an  interesting  history  before  it  ever 
came  to  be  used  for  school  purposes.  It  was  erected 
as  a  Baptist  church,  and  later  converted  into  a 
slave  mart,  where  human  beings  were  bought  and 
sold.  By  a  curious  coincidence  one  of  the  presid- 
ing elders  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was, 
as  a  boy,  sold  in  this  building  with  a  calf,  and  later 
he  returned  to  it  to  get  an  education.  One  of  the 
present  teachers  of  the  school  was  sold  in  this 
building  as  a  slave  for  the  sum  of  |1,15C.  He  later 
returned  to  it  as  a  pupil  and  then  for  years  taught 
in  the  old  building.  This  slave  market  still  stands 
as  a  x^art  of  one  of  the  industrial  buildings. 


IN  "SUNNY  TENNESSEE"  1G5 

Working  with  the  Hands 

Special  emphasis  has  been  put  upon  industrial 
training  here,  and  every  pupil  is  expected  to  spend 
a  portion  of  each  day  in  the  workshop.  The  prin- 
cipal industries  taught  are  brooni-niaking,  wood- 
working, and  printing.  A  machine  shop  is  main- 
tained, and  for  a  considerable  number  of  years  a 
foundry  was  operated.  This  latter  has,  however, 
been  discontinued.  It  is  expected  that  the  recently 
purchased  Wallace  Farm  will  enable  the  school  to 
offer  more  extended  agricultural  training  than  it 
has  been  able  to  provide  in  the  past.  A  part  of 
the  industrial  training  for  girls  is  under  the  di- 
rection of  New  Jersey  Home,  although  the  actual 
teaching  is  done  in  the  new,  modern,  and  well- 
equipped  main  school  building.  Here  various 
courses  in  domestic  science  and  domestic  art  are 
»  effectively  taught  and  opportunity  for  specializa- 
tion is  afforded. 

Keaching  Thousands 

Since  the  organization  of  the  school  more  than 
ten  thousand  students  have  been  trained  in  it.  Of 
these  students  more  than  two  thousand  have  gone 
out  to  teach  school  among  the  people  of  their  own 
race.  Thus  the  school  has  multiplied  its  influence 
many  times.  By  a  special  arrangement  with  the 
public-school  authorities  the  school  provides  in- 
struction in  the  elementary  grades  to  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  colored  boys  and  girls  of  the  com- 


166 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


mimity  in  addition  to  the  more  advanced  normal, 
college  preparatory,  and  special  conrses  upon  which 
the  chief  emphasis  is  placed.  More  than  half  the 
members  of  the  East  Tennessee  Conference  were 


MAIN  BUILDING,  MORRISTOWN  NORMAL  AND 
INDUSTRIAL  COLLEGE 

trained  here.  In  order  to  reach  individuals  who 
are  employed  during  the  day  it  is  customary  to 
maintain  a  niaht  school  durinir  the  winter  months. 


From  Persecution  to  Cooperation 

One  of  the  personal  triumphs  of  President  Hill 
has  been  his  winning  of  the  confidence  of  the  white 
people  in  the  midst  of  whom  he  has  labored.  When 
the  work  was  undertaken  forty  years  ago,  the  atti- 


IN  ''SUNNY  TENNESSEE" 


1G7 


tude  was  one  of  suspicion.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  President  Hill  was  recently  made  chairman  of 
a  committee  to  revise  the  charter  of  the  city  of 
Morristown. 

Measuring  Up  to  the  Need 

Notwithstanding  the  beautiful  campus  and  the 
several  buildings,  the  school  is  still  not  in  a  con- 
dition to  measure  up  to  its  opportunities.  Its  great- 
est lack  is  dormitory  space  and  dining  facilities. 
A  new  dormitory  for  boys  and  a  new  modern  re- 
fectory are  urgently  needed.  If  these  were  pro- 
vided, it  would  be  possible  to  admit  to  the  advan- 
tages of  the  school  a  large  number  of  applicants 
who  must  now  be  turned  away  for  lack  of  space, 


WALLACE  FARM 


168  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

Building  Under  Favorable  Circumstances 

In  this  matter  of  bnilding,  Morristown  possesses 
some  distinct  advantages;  tlie  timber  on  Wal- 
lace Farm  supplies  the  necessary  Inmber;  an  ex- 
cellent bed  of  clay  on  the  campus  is  used  with  the 
aid  of  student  labor  to  make  the  bricks;  a  deposit 
of  limestone  provides  the  necessary  lime;  an  abun- 
dance of  wood  for  burning-  the  lime  and  operating 
the  brick  ovens  is  available;  and  the  school  is 
equipped  for  the  making  of  flooring,  doors,  sash, 
frames,  and  similar  items.  The  bricks  for  Crary 
Hall,  the  money  for  the  building  of  which  was 
largely  contributed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Horace  Crary 
of  Binghamton,  New  York,  and  for  other  build- 
ings were  made  on  the  campus.  For  the  proposed 
new  boys'  dormitory,  refectory,  and  hospital  a 
quarter  of  a  million  feet  of  lumber  have  already 
been  cut  on  the  farm  and  drawn  to  the  campus,  and 
a  half  a  million  bricks  have  been  made  by  student 
labor.  When  the  funds  are  made  available  for  the 
proposed  buildings  it  will  be  possible  to  move  for- 
ward with  them  promptly,  for  much  of  the  raw  ma- 
terial will  be  at  hand  ready  for  use.  Thus  by  dint 
of  hard  work,  sacrifice,  and  wise  planning  the 
school,  which  began  in  an  old  building  and  with  an 
acre  and  a  half  of  land,  has  grown  from  one  build- 
ing to  nine  and  from  its  original  small  plot  to 
three  hundred  and  seventy-five  acres,  with  the  en- 
tire property  free  from  debt.  Much  of  this  devel- 
opment has  been  made  possible  by  friends,  some  of 


IN  "SUNNY  TENNESSEE"  169 

them  outside  of  the  Methodist  Church,  whom  Dr. 
Hill  has  won  for  the  work. 


The  Walden  School 

The  school  so  long  known  as  Walden  University 
was  started  in  1SG5  in  the  basement  of  Clark 
Memorial  Church,  Nashville,  Tennessee.  The  fol- 
lowing y€ar  it  was  moved  to  the  "Gun  Factory,"  a 
building  erected  for  the  manufacture  of  munitions. 
It  was  never  used  for  that  purpose,  however,  but 
was  occupied  by  Federal  troops.  At  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War  Dr.  John  M.  Walden,  the  secretary 
of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society,  secured  the  use  of 
the  building  for  a  Negro  school  and  placed  the  Rev. 
John  Braden  in  charge  of  it.  For  one  year  Mr. 
Braden  with  his  wife  and  little  girl  lived  in  the  Gun 
Factory  and  conducted  the  school.  In  1807  it  be- 
came necessary  to  hud  a  new  location,  and  a  piece 
of  property  having  upon  it  a  two-story  brick  build- 
ing was  purchased;  money  was  appropriated  for 
the  erection  of  two  other  buildings,  and  the  school 
was  given  the  name  Central  Tennessee  CoHege. 
Later  other  buildings  were  added,  and  the  course 
of  study  was  developed. 

In  1S7G  a  Medical  Department,  now  Meharry 
Medical  College,  was  organized.  Three  years  later 
a  Law  Department  was  added.  In  ISSC  a  Dental 
Department,  now  Meharry  Dental  College,  was  in- 
cluded ;  and  in  1889  a  Pharmaceutical  Department, 
now  Meharry  Pharmaceutical  College,  was  started. 


170 


NEGRO  EDUCATION 


A  Theological  Department  had  been  included  from 
the  early  days.  An  Industrial  Department,  which 
taught  carpentry,  printing,  needlework,  dressmak- 
ing, housework,  cooking,  millinery,  nursing,  black- 
smithing,  tinning,  wagon  making,  and,  ultimately, 
iron,  brass,  and  steel  working,  was  started  in  1884. 


SOME  WALDEN  BUILDINGS 


An  African  Training  School  for  those  who  were 
considering  missionary  work  to  Africa  was  opened 
in  1888,  and  classes  in  shorthand  and  typewriting 
were  organized  in  1889.  Thus,  under  the  wise  and 
efficient  leadership  of  Dr.  Braden,  the  school  be- 
came in  fact  a  ''university."  Graduates  from  its 
various  departments  went  out  in  large  numbers  to 
occupy  important  positions  with  credit  to  them- 


IX  ''SUNNY  TI:NNESSEE"  171 

selves  and  to  the  institution  from  which  they  came. 
Four  l>ishops  in  the  varions  branches  of  Methodism 
were  trained  here,  inclnding  Bishop  I.  B.  Scott  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Accidents 

Possibly  no  school  had  a  more  enconraging  de- 
velopment than  Central  Tennessee  College  (later 
changed  to  Walden  University),  the  first  school 
organized  by  the  Freedmeu's  Aid  Society.  In  re- 
cent years,  however,  a  series  of  circumstances  and 
accidents  has  tended  to  limit  the  work  of  the  school. 
In  1900  President  Braden  died  and  the  school  was 
deprived  of  his  cai)able  leadership.  Three  years 
later,  near  midnight  of  December  18,  1003,  a  dis- 
astrous fire  broke  out  in  one  of  the  buildings  and 
twelve  lives  were  lost.  Self-seeking  lawyers  urged 
relatives  of  injured  persons  to  bring  suit  against 
the  school,  with  the  result  that  suits  were  insti- 
tuted to  the  amount  of  one  hundred  and  twent}' 
thousand  dollars.  For  years,  while  these  suits  were 
pending,  it  was  deemed  inadvisable  to  rebuild  or 
to  purchase  new  equipment.  The  school  inevitably 
suffered  and  it  has  never  regained  the  prestige  and 
standing  of  its  early  days. 

A  New  Location 

While  Walden  has  decreased  in  the  size  and  scope 
of  its  program,  the  Meharry  Colleges,  which  started 
as  departments  of  Walden,  have  grown  remarkably 
and  until  their  present  buildings  have  become  in- 


172  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

adequate.  An  arrangement  has  now  been  made 
whereby  the  Walden  buildings  adapted  to  the  use 
of  Meharry  are  to  be  turned  over  to  that  institution, 
and  a  new  and  more  suitable  location  has  been  se- 
cured for  the  Walden  School.  In  this  new  environ- 
ment it  is  expected  that  this  old  and  really  great 
school  will  still  have  a  long  period  of  usefulness  in 
the  vears  ahead. 


CHAPTER  XII 

WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE? 

In  order  to  appreciate  the  siguificanee  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  dnring'  the  last  half  century 
in  the  e<^lncation  of  the  Xegro  it  is  necessary  to 
think  in  terms  of  individuals.  The  imagination 
must  picture  cabins — one-room  cabins,  two-room 
cabins,  three-room  cabins,  and  cabins  of  many  sorts 
— cabins  with  little  furniture,  little  lighting,  no 
upstairs,  and  few  or  no  conveniences.  To  these  must 
be  added  vast  stretches  of  cotton,  corn,  and  cane, 
made  possible  by  the  labor  of  millions  of  colored 
men,  women,  and  little  children.  J^iid  then  there 
must  be  visualized  the  multitudes  of  untutored  boys 
and  girls  who  have  come  from  these  homes  to  the 
schools  of  the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes,  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  there  to  learn  how 
to  use  the  simplest  modern  conveniences;  to  study 
reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry, 
music,  the  Bible,  business,  and  many  other  arts  and 
sciences.  Xor  is  the  picture  complete  until  it  in- 
cludes a  steady  stream  of  teachers,  mechanics, 
farmers,  business  men,  musicians,  preachers,  doc- 
tors, dentists,  pharmacists,  and  lawyers  emerging 
from  these  schools  to  go  out  to  minister  to  the 
people  of  their  own  race  and  to  make  their  contri- 

173 


174  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

bution  to  the  total  of  the  world's  human  achieve- 
ment. 

To  look  out  upon  the  work  which  remains  to 
be  done  is  to  face  a  task  which  is  still  enormous, 
but  the  remarkable  progress  of  the  past  renews 
one's  courage.  A  little  more  than  half  a  century 
ago  Negro  education  was  prohibited  by  law;  to-day 
some  sort  of  an  educational  system  for  Negro  chil- 
dren is  supported  by  every  State  in  which  there 
are  Negroes.  There  are  multitudes  of  public 
schools,  particularly  in  the  rural  sections,  which 
are  hardly  worthy  of  the  name  of  ''school";  but  a 
few  years  ago  there  were  no  schools  at  all.  Even  a 
poor  school  marks  a  beginning  of  something  that 
can  be  improved,  and  a  very  bad  school  may  be 
better  than  no  school  at  all.  Opposition  to  Negro 
education  is  largely  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  co- 
operation has  taken  its  place.  There  are,  indeed; 
many  grounds  for  encouragement,  not  the  least  of 
which  is  the  change  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
Negro  himself. 

A  New  Negro 

If  there  is  one  thing  more  than  another  which 
stands  out  in  the  present  race  situation  in  Amer- 
ica, possibly  it  is  that  we  have  to-day  a  new  Negro ; 
a  Negro  who  is  very  unlike  the  Negro  of  the  past 
and  whom  it  is  very  easy  to  misunderstand.  Some 
deprecate  the  change  and  are  inclined  to  attribute 
it  to  the  Negro's  participation  in  the  World  War. 
Doubtless  the  war  taught  the  Negro  many  things, 


AVHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?      175 


THE  OLDER  GENERATION  AND  THE  YOUNGER 
GENERATION 


17G  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

but,  war  or  no  war,  the  coming  of  the  new  Negro 
was  as  inevitable  as  the  coming  of  the  springtime. 
Any  attempt  to  hold  him  back  will  be  ultimately 
as  effective  as  a  similar  attempt  to  stop  the  rising 
of  the  sun.  The  stage  has  been  set  for  a  new  act 
and  the  forces  behind  it  are  such  that,  w^hile  the 
performance  may  be  marred  by  unsympathetic  au- 
ditors, nothing  can  permanently  delaj  the  presenta- 
tion. Quietly,  and  most  effectively  because  quietly, 
the  Negro  is  insisting  that  he  be  treated  as  a  man. 
He  believes  that  he  has  demonstrated  physically, 
morally,  and  intellectuall}"  that  he  is  entitled  to 
that  consideration.  The  fawning  "hat-in-his-hand" 
Negro  belongs  to  another  generation;  the  alert, 
intelligent,  capable,  self-reliant  Negro  character- 
izes the  present.  The  danger,  and  without  doubt 
there  is  real  danger,  arises  when  we  insist  on  treat- 
ing the  second  as  though  he  were  still  the  first. 

Fortunately  there  is  an  awakening  to  this  very 
important  situation.  A  noted  Southern  orator  re- 
cently recognized  this  change  when  from  the  plat- 
form he  said :  ''Yes,  friends,  we  understand  the 
'nigger,'  but  I  want  to  tell  you  that  ^ve  do  not  under- 
stand the  Negro." 

Hunger  for  Education 

And  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  new  Negro 
is  his  hunger  for  an  education.  He  understands 
better  than  the  Negro  did  a  generation  ago  the 
sacrifice  and  labor  involved  in  getting  an  education, 
but  he  also  understands  its  value,  and  he  is  content 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  177 

to  pay  the  price.  It  is  little  short  of  amazing  to 
see  the  patient,  long-continned,  and  diligent  effort 
which  a  colored  boy  or  girl  will  put  into  the  getting 
of  and  the  paying  for  an  education,  and  yet, 
although  many  of  the  pupils  are  extremely  poor, 
one  may  go  from  school  to  school  without  ever  hear- 
ing a  story  of  poverty  unless  he  diligently  searches 
it  out.  The  students  are  not  given  to  complaining, 
but  they  are  determined  to  get  an  education  in  spite 
of  handicaps.  And  the  opportunities  are  not  equal 
to  the  demand  made  upon  them.  It  is  not  only  the 
Methodist  schools  but  also  others  which  are 
crowded  beyond  capacity.  One  school  reports  a 
thousand  advance  applications;  some  are  taking 
registrations  for  several  years  in  advance,  and 
others  maintain  extended  waiting  lists. 

The  Ability  of  the  Negro 

Man}'  curious  ideas  are  afloat  as  to  the  native 
ability  of  the  Negro.  Some  insist,  even  to-day,  with 
due  gravity,  that  the  Lord  never  intended  the  Ne- 
gro to  be  developed  intellectually  beyond  the  merest 
rudiments  of  an  education.  Others  claim  with 
equal  solemnity  that  no  colored  man  except  a  mu- 
latto ever  gained  distinction,  and  other  similarly 
unfounded  theories  are  widely  circulated.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  we  have  as  yet  no  satisfactory  basis 
for  comparing  the  intellectual  achievements  of  the 
black  man  and  those  of  the  white  man.  It  is  very 
easy  to  attribute  to  natural  limitations  conditions 
which  grow  out  of  an  entirely  inadequate  diet,  out 


178  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

of  bad  and  unstimiilating'  home  conditions,  and  out 
of  almost  utter  lack  of  preparation  for  the  task  at 
hand.  Multitudes  of  Negroes  have  never  had  a 
chance  to  learn  to  read  and  write,  and  it  is  hardly 
fair  at  the  moment  to  consign  them  unheard  to  the 
class  of  the  mentally  incapacitated.  The  important 
question,  however,  is  not  to  determine  whether  the 
black  man  is  intellectually  inferior  to  or  superior 
to  the  white  man,  but  whether,  as  a  child  of  the 
living  God  and  a  citizen  of  this  free  nation,  he  is  to 
have  a  chance  to  make  the  most  of  himself.  Pro- 
fessor W.  H.  Crogman  of  Clark  University  spoke 
wisely  for  his  own  race  when  he  said :  "When  you 
begin  to  educate  a  human  being,  it  is  hard  to  tell 
to  what  altitude  he  may  rise.  Let  him  feel  that  the 
earth  is  beneath  him,  God  above,  and  nothing  in  the 
intermediate  space  to  check  his  growth  or  chill  his 
aspirations,  and  then  you  may  begin  to  teach  him 
the  alphabet.''  It  would  indeed  be  premature  to 
begin  to  draw  limits  for  the  development  of  the 
Negro.  Already  individual  Negroes  have  done  almost 
everything  that  a  white  man  has  ever  done,  from 
the  painting  of  a  picture  to  traveling  to  the  North 
Pole  or  dying  patriotically  for  their  country.  Time 
alone  can  tell  how  far  the  race  will  travel  along 
paths  of  culture  and  intellectual  development. 

Mingling  of  the  Races 

The  shibboleth  of  "racial  purity"  has  been  the 
watchword  of  many  who  have  opposed  the  granting 
of  opportunities  for  develoi^ment  to  the  Negro.   The 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  179 

implication  has  been  that  edncation  tended  to  break 
down  the  ditt'erenee  between  the  races.  In  this  con- 
nection Bishop  Robert  E.  Jones  has  recently  called 
to  onr  attention  the  pertinent  fact  that  in  the  more 
than  half  a  century  of  Methodist  edncational  work 
in  the  South,  during-  which  members  of  both  races 
and  both  sexes  have  mingled  freely  in  the  common 
work  of  the  schools,  there  has  never  in  all  that  time 
been  a  case  of  intermarriage  between  the  races  or 
a  scandal  involving  individuals  of  opposite  race. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
although  the  schools  of  the  Board  of  Education  for 
Negroes,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  are  all 
co-educational  the  moral  conduct  of  the  pupils  has 
been  of  a  very  high  order.  Strict  supervision,  em- 
phasis upon  the  training  of  the  religious  life,  and 
the  fact  that  most  of  the  pupils  are  in  school  to  se- 
cure a  better  start  in  life,  has  made  the  question 
of  discipline  a  relatively  simple  matter. 

The  Negro  Shoulders  Responsibility 

In  the  beginning  of  the  work  all  of  the  teachers 
and  other  workers  were  white  men  and  women  from 
the  North.  Professor  W.  H.  Crogman  was  the  tirst 
colored  teacher  to  be  employed  by  the  Freedmen's 
Aid  Society.  He  began  his  work  at  Claflin  Univer- 
sity in  1870.  Since  that  time  the  number  of  col- 
ored workers  in  the  schools  has  steadily  increased. 
Already  more  than  half  of  the  school  presidents 
and  principals  and  more  than  three  fourths  of  all 
the  teachers  are  Ne<>roes.     These  colored  workers 


180  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

have  measured  up  in  a  most  satisfactory  manner  to 
the  responsibilities  placed  upon  them.  The  Negro, 
too,  very  quickly  assumed  a  portion  of  the  financial 
burden  of  the  schools.  Buildings  have  been  erected 
from  money  contributed  by  Negroes,  poor  colored 
people  have,  out  of  their  poverty,  contributed  to 
the  work  of  the  schools,  colored  teachers  have  re- 
fused more  alluring  offers  elsewhere  in  order  to 
stay  by  their  tasks,  and  pupils  have  paid  both  board 
and  tuition  from  the  very  iirst.  In  fact  scholar- 
ships in  the  schools  have  been  conspicuous  chiefly 
for  their  absence. 

Results  and  Aspirations 

The  story  of  the  achievements  of  the  schools 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Board  of  Education  for 
Negroes,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has 
never  been  told  and  never  will  be  told ;  it  is  too  ex- 
tended a  tale  for  that.  Its  record  is  to  be  found  in 
the  nearly  quarter  of  a  million  students  whose  lives 
have  been  directly  touched  by  the  work  and  in  the 
millions  of  others  who  have  in  tui-n  been  touched  by 
them.  The  schools  have  been  a  most  important  fac- 
tor in  making  possible  the  present  Negro  constitu- 
ency of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which 
to-day  consists  of  more  than  two  thousand  minis- 
ters and  more  than  a  third  of  a  million  church 
members  who  in  the  first  year  of  the  Centenary  of 
Methodist  Missions  contributed  nearly  half  a  mil- 
lion dollars  to  the  Centenary  fund.  The  influence 
of  the  schools  has,  however,  gone  far  beyond  the 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  181 

limits  of  any  one  denomination  and  lias  permeated 
for  good  every  colored  clmrcli  in  the  United  States, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  missionaries  whom  it  has  sent 
to  Africa. 

It  is  donbtfnl  whether  any  other  similar  amount 
of  missionary  money  has  ever  yielded  more  satis- 
factory returns  than  has  that  invested  in  Negro 
education  during  the  last  half  century,  and  yet 
never  in  that  time  has  the  Board  been  able  to  do 
its  work  as  it  ought  to  have  been  done,  for  lack  of 
funds.  Buildings  have  been  dilapidated  and  over- 
crowded; teachers  have  been  underpaid;  needed 
equipment  has  been  lacking;  libraries  have  been 
absent  when  they  ought  to  have  been  present ;  much 
needed  gymnasiums  have  failed  to  materialize ;  and 
schools  which  have  sorely  needed  endowment  have 
had  little  or  none.  Yet  in  spite  of  embarrassments 
growing  out  of  tantalizing  unmet  needs,  the  work 
has  moved  forward  and  its  results  have  often  been 
more  substantial  than  the  instruments  through 
which  they  have  been  achieved. 

The  well  coordinated  system  of  schools  which 
has  been  built  out  of  the  many  separate  educational 
ventures  begun  long  ago  has  demonstrated  its  right 
to  live.  It  is  the  privilege  of  an  awakened  church 
to  help  it  to  live  a  fuller,  a  richer,  and  an  even  more 
fruitful  life  in  the  future  than  it  has  in  the  years 
which  have  passed. 


Schools  Under  the  Auspices  of  the  Board  of 

Education  for  IS^egroes,  of  the  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church 

1922 

THEOLOGICAL 

Gammon  Theological  Seminary,  Atlanta,  Georgia. 

MEDICAL 

Flint-Goodi'idge  Hospital  and  Xnrse  Training  School, 

New  Orleans,  Louisiana. 
Meharry  Medical  College,  Nashville,  Tennessee. 

UNIVERSITY 

Clark  Universit}',  Atlanta,  Georgia. 

COLLEGES 

Bennett  College,  Greensboro,  North  Carolina. 
Clafliu  College,  Orangeburg,  South  Carolina. 
George  E.  Smith  College,  Sedalia,  Missouri. 
Morgan  College,  Baltimore,  Maryland. 
Morristowni   Normal   and   Industrial   College,   Morris- 
town,  Tennessee. 
New  Orleans  College,  New  Orleans,  Louisiana. 
Philander  Smith  College,  Little  Rock,  Arkansas. 
Rust  College,  Holly  Springs,  Mississippi. 
Samuel  Huston  College,  Austin,  Texas, 
Wiley  College,  Marshall,  Texas. 

academic 

Central  Alabama  Institute,  Birmingham,  Alabama. 
Cookman  Institute,  Jacksonville,  Florida. 
Haven  Institute,  Meridian,  Mississippi. 
Princess  Anne  Academy,  I'rincess  Anne,  Maryland, 
Walden  School,  Nashville,  Tennessee. 

182 


Secretaries  of  the  Freedmen's  Aid  Society  and 
THE  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes 

J.  M.  Walden 186G-1867 

R.    ^>.   Kiist lSGS-1888 

J.  C.  Hartzell 1888-1896 

J.  W.  Hamiltou 1892-1000 

M.  C.  B.  Mason 1896-1912 

W.  P.  Thirkield 1900-1906 

P.  J.  Maveetv 1908- 

I.  G.  Peim..*^. 1912- 


183 


KosTER   OF   Presidents   and   Principals   of   the 

Schools  of  the  Board  of  Edl'Cation 

FOR  Negroes,  of  the  Methodist 

Episcopal  Church 

GAMMON    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY 

W.  P.  Thii-kield 1883-1899 

E.  L.  Parks  (Acting) 1900 

L.  G.  Adkiuson 1901-1905 

J.  W.  E.  Boweii 190(1-1908 

S.  E.  Idleiuau 1911-1913 

P.  M.  Walters 1914- 

meiiarry    medical   college 
(De]iartment  ol'  Central  Tennessee  College  Until  1905) 
(r.  W.  Hnbbard   (Dean)   1876  to  1913— Presi- 
dent 1913  to  1921. 
J.  J.  Mullowney 1921- 

FLINT     MEDICAL    COLLEGE 

(Later  Sarah  Goodridge  Hospital  and  Nnrse  Training 
School) 

A.  I).  Bush (Dean  )    1905-1910 

R.  T.  Fuller (Dean)    1911-1918 

T.  R.  Heath (Dean)    1918- 

CENTRAL    TENNESSEE    COLLEGE 

(Later  Walden  College) 

O.  A.  Knight 38G5-1S67 

John    Braden 1808-1899 

G.  W.  Hnbbard   (Acting) 1900 

J.  B.  Hamilton 1901-1903 

.7.  A.  Kunder 1904-1912 

George  F.  Durgin 1913-1915 

E.  A.  White 191C-1918 

J.  H.  Lovell 1919- 

184 


PRESIDENTS  AND  PRINCIPALS       185 


CLARK    UNIVERSITY 

Uriah   Clearv 1S71 

A.  1.  Marcy 1872-1874 

Isaac  Lansing 1875-1  S7(i 

R.  E.  Bisbee 1877-1870 

E.  O.  Thavei- 1880-1880 

W.  H.  Hickman 1800-1 8!)2 

D.  C.  John 18!>;MS0(; 

C.  M.  Melden 1807-1001' 

W.  H.  Croginan 100:M!)00 

S.  E.  Idleman 1010-1011 

W.  W.  Foster,  Jr 1012-lOU 

H.  A.  King iiJi.j- 

CLAFLIN   COLLEGE 

^   ™f^^\'       ' 18C9 

T.  ^^  .  Lewis     j 

A.  Webster 1870-1874: 

E.  Cook 1875-1881 

L.  M.  Dnnton 1884- 

M ORGAN    COLLEGE 

F.  J.  Wagner 1800-1000 

J.  O.  Spencer ■. 1001- 

M0RRIST(3WX     NORMAL     AND     INDUSTRIAL     COLLEGE 

J.  S.  Hill 1881- 

MERIDIAN    ACADEMY 

(Later  Haven   Institute  and  Conservatory) 

J.  H.  Brooks 1888-1802 

J.  L.  WMlson 1807-1002 

W.  W.  Lucas 100:M004 

J.  B.  F.  Shaw 1005-1015 

M.    S.   Davage lOKi 

J.  B.  Randolph 1017-1!)10 

R.  N.  Brooks 1020 

J.  B.  F.  Shaw 1021- 


186  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

PHILANDER    SMITH    COLLEGE 

Thomas   Mason 1888-1892 

J.  M.  Cox 1897- 

GILBERT    ACADEMY 

W.   D.   Godnian 1888-1897 

A.  E.  r.  Albert 1898-1899 

Pierre   Laiulrv 1900-1904 

H.   ^\.   McDonald 1905-1907 

J.  T.  Matthews 1908-1911 

J.  K.  Keynolds 1912-1919 

(Transferred  to  New  Orleans  College) 

COOKMAN   INSTITUTE 

S.  B.  Darnell 1873-1892 

S.  AV.  Kenierer 1897-1898 

H.  K.   Bankerd 1899-1901 

Lillie  M.  Whitney 1902-1903 

J.   T.    Docking 1904-1910 

G.  B.   Stone 1911-1919 

I.  H.  Miller 1920- 

LA    GRANGE    ACADEMY 

J.  H.  Owens 1879- 

L.  J.  Price 1888- 

G.  W.  Arnold 1889 

Henry  M.  White 1890-1892 

G.  C/  Prince 1897-1899 

R.  G.  Robinson 1900-1901 

A.  A.  Thomas 1902-1907 

S.  R.  Singer 1908 

(Discontinued) 

WILEY    COLLEGE 

F.  C.  Moore 1873-1876 

W.  H.  Davis 1877-1881 

George  Wliittaker 1888-1890 

P.   A.   Cool 1891-1893 

I.  B.   Scott 1894-1896 

M.  W.  Dosan 1897- 


PRESIDENTS  AND  PRINCIPALS       187 


NEW    ORLEANS   COLLEGE   AND    GILP.ERT    ACADEMY 

I.  S.  Leavitt 1873-1874 

W.   D.   Godmaii 1875-1878 

I.  N.  Failor 1879-1881 

L.  (}.  Adkiiisoii 1888-1 !)()() 

F.  H.  Knight 1!)01-1!)(J7 

John    Wier 11)08-1!)11 

C.  M.  Meldeu .  li)12- 

SIIAW    UNIVERSITY 

(Later  Kust •College) 

A.   C.  McDonald 1809-1870 

W.   W.    Hooper 1877-1881 

John  F.  Lloyd 1888-1892 

C.  E.  Libby 189:J-18!)0 

W.  W.  Fos^ter,  Jr 18t)7-1910 

J.  T.  Docking 1911-1914 

George  Evans 1915-1918 

M.  S.  Davage 1919- 

SAMUEL   HUSTON    COLLEGE 

R.   S.  Lovinggood 1899-1910 

M.  S.  Davage 1917-1919 

J.  B.  Randolph 1920- 


BENNETT   COLLEGE 

E    O.  Thayer 1875-1879 

A^    F.  Steele 1880-1889 

C.  F.   Grandison 1890-1892 

J.   D.    Chavis 1897-1904 

S.  A.  Peeler 1905-1913 

J.  J.  Wallace 1914-1910 

Frank  Trigg 1917- 

GEORGE    R.     SMITH     COLLEGE 

E.  A.  Robertson 1897-1901 

I.   L.   Lowe 1902-1907 

A.  C.  Maclin 1908-1910 


188  XEGRO  EDUCATION 

J.  C.  Sherrill 1911-1912 

George  Evans li)i:M914 

M.  S.  Davaoe l!)l.j-1916 

R.  B.  Hayes 1917- 

HAVEX    NORMAL   SCHOOL 

Waynesboro,  Ga. 

J.  R.  Goodvear 1872-1874 

C.  ^Y.  McMahon 1875-1877 

C.  r.  Wellman 1878-1879 

Carrie   Fairchild 1888-1892 

Percy    Gitt'ord 1898 

Thomas   Tisdall 1899 

H.  R.  Bnlklev 1900-1901 

W.  H.  Brvaii 1902-1903 

R.  W.  S.  Thomas 1904-1907 

E.  T.  Barksdale 1908-1911 

W.  M.  Gordon 1912- 

( Discontinued) 

CENTRAL    ALABA:MA    INSTITUTE 

Miss  M.  Hindman 1808-1870 

Miss  M.  M.  Harrington 1871-1874 

Mrs.  C.  W.  Munson 1875-1876 

Mrs.  Mary  L.  Raines 1877-1878 

D.  S.  Brandon 1879-1881 

A.  W.  McKinnev 1888-1900 

W.  L.  Riley 1901 

R.  G.  Robinson 1902 

B.  H.   Ball 1!)0:M904 

W.  R.  A.  Palmer 1!)05-1907 

A.   P.   Camphor 1908-191G 

J.  B.  F.  Shaw 1917-1920 

R.  N.  Brooks 1921- 


HISTORICAL  MEMORANDA 

18G6  August  7th,  Stli.  The  Freediiieii's  Aid  Society 
of  the  Methodist  P]piseopal  Church  organized  iu 
Trinity  Church,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

1866  August  20th.  First  meeting  of  the  Executive 
Committee. 

1868  General  Conference  commended  work  of  the  So- 
ciety to  the  Church. 

(1868-1872)  In  the  latter  part  of  this  quadrennium  aid 
was  first  given  to  wliite  school  work  in  the  South 
by  relieving  the  Seminary  at  Ellijay,  (Jeorgia,  of 
embarrassing   debt. 

1870  November  1st.  Society  incorporated  "for  the 
relief  and  educati(m  of  Freedmeu  and  others, 
es])ecially  in  cooi)eration  with  the  Missionary 
and  Church  Extension  Societies  of  the  Methodist 
Ei)iscopal  Church." 

1872  General  Conference  a])proved  Act  of  Incorpora- 
tion of  the  Society  and  constituted  it  one  of  the 
Benevolent  Societies  of  the  Church.  Collections 
first  reported  in  General  Minutes  and  flOO,000 
apportioned  to  the  Annual  Conferences  for  the 
work. 

1880  The  specific  approval  of  the  white  school  work 
by  the  General  Conference  was  followed  by  its 
steady  extension. 

1888  Name  modified  so  as  to  r-ead,  "The  Freedmen's 
Aid  and  Southern  Education  Society ;"  and  edu- 
cational work  among  both  colored  and  white 
people  in  the  Southern  States  placed  under  di- 
rection of  this  Society. 

1892  Charter  amended  i:)roviding  for  a  General  Com- 
mittee to  represent  the  whole  Church  in  man- 
aging the  Society. 

1000     General   Conference    appointed    Commission    to 

189 


190  NEGRO  EDUCATION 

consider  Benevolent  Societies  and  make  plan  for 
consolidation. 

1902  July  2d.  Commission  met  at  Ocean  Grove,  N.  J., 
and  recommended  that  the  Freedmen's  Aid  and 
Southern  Education  Society  be  directed  to  ob- 
tain from  the  State  of  Ohio  an  amended  Act  of 
Incorporation  under  the  corporate  name  of  *'The 
Board  of  Education,  Freedmen's  Aid,  and  Sun- 
day Schools  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church," 

1904  Report  of  Commission  adopted  by  General  Con- 
ference. 

1906  December  31st.     Charter  amended  as  above. 

1907  February  26th.  First  meeting  of  Consolidated 
Board. 

1908  General  Conference  ordered  reorganization  of 
Consolidated  Society.  Committed  work  of  es- 
tablishing and  maintaining  Institutions  among 
Negroes  of  the  South  to  "The  Freedmen's  Aid 
Society  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 
Maintenance  and  administration  of  white  schools 
of  the  South  to  the  "Board  of  Education  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church." 

1908  July  9th.  Final  meeting  of  Consolidated  Board. 
Organization  of  Board  of  Managers  of  the  Freed- 
men's Aid  Society.  Amendment  to  Charter  rec- 
ommended. 

1908     October  14th.    Charter  amended. 

1916  General  Committee  discontinued  by  General 
Conference. 

1916  Lincoln  Sunday  to  be  observed  in  all  the 
churches,  by  order  of  General  Conference. 

1920  General  Conference  directed  change  of  name  to 
the  Board  of  Education  for  Negroes,  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  Church.  December  3,  1920, 
amended  charter  secured  from  the  State  of  Ohio. 
Office  of  Board,  420  Plum  Street,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 


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